[M3devel] UI, Trestle, native... Cocoa??

[Darko]

I think that guy is wrong. Objective C is a layer on top of C and all Obj-C operations can be boiled down to normal C calls. M3 can interface to any C calls so it's not too difficult. What might be a little challenging is getting Obj-C objects looking like M3 objects, but most probably that just requires some glue and weak references to interface with Obj-C reference counting based GC and having the right layout for Obj-C declared object fields.

I agree that GUIs should look native because that's what user's want. If you're interested in experimenting with Mac interfaces there is fairly complete Carbon API implemented by the Mac module which I think is in the repository.



On 27/09/2010, at 11:23 PM, Dragiša Durić wrote:

> I am about to do a port of some simple (in its GUI aspect) application
> to Mac.
> 
> I am also discouraged (at least tried to) to near death :) by a guy from
> another community, he is 1000% sure Modula-3 cannot be made to support
> Cocoa not a "g" of gracefully.
> 
> Trestle under X did not took my breath. After peeking and pooking around
> sources a bit, I think it was very nice project in its time, and
> reasonable one to use 12-15yrs ago, but things moved on. In other words
> - I cannot think an explanation to my customer why a GUI appliction of
> mine is not more.... GUIsh...
> 
> I did a lot of Gtk+ in Modula-3, under Linux (and colleague did his
> testing on Windows while he was working with me on it) and from that
> experience I know it's not impossible to make native GUI work. 
> 
> In other words - count on me for low level binding/interfacing once I
> start doing my work on Mac - in few weeks time.
> 
> On Mon, 2010-09-27 at 13:12 -0700, Darko wrote:
>> I can't say I'm interested in Trestle, and getting compatibility with Cocoa objects might be a hassle, but I am interested in Cocoa support in M3. The things that need to be done to make this happen are:
>> 
>> - run time support for Objective-C objects, basically the ability to call Obj-C methods and reference Obj-C fields in objects
>> - conversion of Cocoa interfaces to M3. This can probably be automated to some degree, I've already gone through the process with Carbon API (admittedly from Pascal interfaces).
>> 
>> If anyone wants to take on the first task I'd be happy to take on the second. Apple has Obj-C internals doco on the web.
>> 
>> 
>> On 25/09/2010, at 1:42 PM, Dragiša Durić wrote:
>> 
>>> Is it feasible to make it mora native to Mac? Interesting?
>>> 
>>> On Sat, 2010-09-25 at 12:31 +0000, Jay K wrote:
>>>> It draws all the controls itself.
>>>> The Mac version is the X Windows version.
>>>> 
>>>> - Jay
>>>> 
>>>> ----------------------------------------
>>>>> From: dragisha at m3w.org
>>>>> To: m3devel at elegosoft.com
>>>>> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 13:41:19 +0200
>>>>> Subject: [M3devel] UI, Trestle, native... Cocoa??
>>>>> 
>>>>> Anybody working UI's with Trestle? It is mapped no native widgets on
>>>>> Windows? What about Mac?
>>>>> --
>>>>> Dragiša Durić 
>>>>> 
>>>> 		 	   		  
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Dragiša Durić <dragisha at m3w.org>
>>> 
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Dragiša Durić <dragisha at m3w.org>
>