For Mountain Lion, how does Apple define the Transparent App Lifecycle (TAL)?

Question

Definition

Apple's talagent(8) OS X Manual Page (2010-09-01, long before Lion was released) mentions but does not define the Transparent App Lifecycle feature.

Some time before Lion was released, I understood that the TAL comprised:

• auto save
• versions
• resume.

Now, I'm not so sure. (Suspect that versions are not strictly speaking within the TAL, because not all apps that support the cycle also support versions.)

Please, can anyone give a better answer than the one below?

Something shorter and more definite – maybe with reference to a single e-mail or page from Apple – will be ideal. Thanks.

Side note, an issue with 10.8

macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ sw_vers
ProductName:    Mac OS X
ProductVersion: 10.8
BuildVersion:   12A269
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ man talagent
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ which talagent
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ talagent
-bash: talagent: command not found
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ 

– the command can not be run manually as described in the manual. I'll feed a bug report to Apple. Instead, for example:

/System/Library/CoreServices/talagent -dump Finder

Answer 1

Lion

Carbon Framework Release Notes (2011-04-11, three months before the OS was released) placed three things under Transparent App Lifecycle in relation to a seed of the OS:

• persistent state
• sudden termination
• automatic termination.

Mountain Lion

In Mac App Programming Guide: The Core App Design (2012-07-23, two days before the OS was released) the app life cycle is:

… the progress of an app from its launch through its termination. …

then automatic and sudden termination are:

… techniques that make the termination of an app transparent …

(Unsurprisingly, no mention of Carbon in that guide.)

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Summary

Maybe the 2010 man page for talagent, in both Lion and Mountain Lion, uses an expression (Transparent App Lifecycle) that was outdated before Lion was released.