Re: Unimplemented AppKit classes

[Alexander Malmberg]

Alexander Perez wrote:
> 
> Folks,
> 
> First of all, it's 1AM and I apologize for any discrepancies and/or
> providing erroneous information in advance.
> 
> I don't know if anyone has done this before, and I hope someone else
> finds this information useful. As of 1/21/2003 (assuming the docs at
> http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/gui/Gui.html are up to
> date, which they very well may not be...), the following classes exist in
> Apple's AppKit but not in GNUStep:

Seems rather outdated. Anyway, iirc, afaik, imho, ymmv:

[reorganized list]:

> *NSGlyphInfo
> *NSTypesetter (perform line layout (word wrapping, hyphenation, & line
>         breaking in vertical or horizontal rectangles))
> *NSSimpleHorizontalTypesetter

Parts of the text system. Equivalent classes in progress.

> *NSDrawer

I believe it's been experimented with. Useless, though.

> *NSMovie (QuickTime movie wrapper, quite proprietary)
> *NSMovieView (again, QT movie wrapper, also quite proprietary)

Implementation plans have been discussed (in #GNUstep), but I don't
think anyone has actually started.

> *NSNibConnector (should use the following instead of this directly)
> *NSNibControlConnector (manages an action in IB..why not PB/Ren. as well?)
> *NSNibOutletConnector (ditto, see above)

There are implementations, but I'm not familiar enough with the .gorm
code to comment on them.

> *NSOpenGLContext (All OpenGL calls are rendered into an NSOpenGLContext.
> *NSOpenGLPixelFormat (must specify this to use above...)
> *NSOpenGLView

(Mostly?) Implemented.

> *NSOutlineView (this would be really useful if implemented)

(Mostly?) Implemented.

> *NSPDFImageRep (renders an image from a PDF format data stream)

Unimplemented.

> *NSQuickDrawView (apple proprietary stuff...lets you use Carbon QuickDraw
>         functions inside an NSView.)

Without QuickDraw, we can't implement this in a meaningful way. (One
could do something similar to NSOpenGLView to expose interfaces from
below the backend, at least on X, but that would give us GSXLibView, and
I don't think anyone is very thrilled about that. :)

> *NSSound (I seem to remember seeing some traffic on this)

(Partially?) Implemented.

> *NSStatusBar (looks useful)
> *NSStatusItem (used in conjunction with NSStatusBar)

Unimplemented.

> *NSStepper (this would *really* be useful...looks pretty simple too)
> *NSStepperCell (used in conjunction with above)

There is an implementation, though I have no idea if it works or is
complete.

> *NSToolBar (we *really* need a fully-functional implimentation of this)
> *NSToolBarItem (also needs to be implimented, see above)

Been experimented with. Somewhat useful, but poorly designed.

> *NSURLAdditions

Implemented.

> Is anyone working on an implimentation of any of the above classes for
> GNUStep's AppKit? If so, please "check in" and give us all the
> latest status report.

This is the status as far as I know (based on what's in -gui and what's
been discussed here and in #GNUstep).

> Please skip the obligatory "apple extension blah
> blah blah"  paragraphs. There seem to be two camps when it comes to
> deciding whether or not to impliment these (useful, imo) apple extensions.
> IMO, having working applications for the environment is what the ultimate
> objective is.

Opinions differ. I like apps, too, but not any apps, and not at any
price.

> People in the mac community use these classes, so why
> shouldn't we if they're terribly useful?

But someone needs to implement them, and people tend not to implement
things they think are useless (unless, of course, you're willing to pay
;). Someone needs to think that it's useful enough to actually implement
it for it to get done. (And even then, feeping creaturism is something I
really want to avoid.)

> Alex Perez
> aperez@student.santarosa.edu

- Alexander Malmberg