Speaking of anguish, simply leaving a non-supported version of X11 installed on future releases of the OS wouldn't be a terribly good idea either. X is a pretty big dependency. If the entire Mac user body moves to XQuartz, it's best for that to happen quickly.
Apple has a well established history of quickly (some might say ruthlessly) depreciating and moving OS components and APIs forward. The upside of this is that developers don't have to experience the anguish associated with supporting several versions of sub-system for long. OS upgrades for the Mac are cheap and easy, so users tend to run closer to the front line. This is especially true for developers.
The downside is that you're frequently caught off guard. The change from Apple X11 to XQuartz is, definitively, a yak shaving exercise. Bleh.
The approach isn't without trade-offs. In other words, I try not to don my rose colored glasses prematurely, but I've spent enough time on all the major platforms to recognize that there are many advantages to the approach Apple uses here.
Apple has a well established history of quickly (some might say ruthlessly) depreciating and moving OS components and APIs forward. The upside of this is that developers don't have to experience the anguish associated with supporting several versions of sub-system for long. OS upgrades for the Mac are cheap and easy, so users tend to run closer to the front line. This is especially true for developers.
The downside is that you're frequently caught off guard. The change from Apple X11 to XQuartz is, definitively, a yak shaving exercise. Bleh.
The approach isn't without trade-offs. In other words, I try not to don my rose colored glasses prematurely, but I've spent enough time on all the major platforms to recognize that there are many advantages to the approach Apple uses here.