Objective-C and Swift

OSX Desktop Manager (Quartz Compositor)

4-Mar-14 22:33

See https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=java+ios+phone[^].

Member 1060876119-Feb-14 0:57

19-Feb-14 0:57

Call me ambitious, but I want to create a desktop window manager for OSX. I want to be able to display windows where I want them, when I want them, how I want them.

Does anyone know where to begin? Can I overwrite the existing desktop manager and replace their code with mine?

Richard MacCutchan19-Feb-14 3:03

19-Feb-14 3:03

Member 10608761 wrote:
Does anyone know where to begin?

Do you understnad the principles of the product you want to create? Are you a skilled OSX programmer, etc.?

Member 10608761 wrote:
Can I overwrite the existing desktop manager and replace their code with mine?

If you need to ask this question then the chances are that your understanding of OSX is not yet at the right level. I would suggest finding some study materials that give details of the operating system internals so you can gain a good understanding of how it all fits together.

Member 1060876121-Feb-14 0:51

21-Feb-14 0:51

I have experience with Objective-C and iOS development, but slightly new to OSX. Windows OS has a really good api for its Windowing system, whereas Quartz has an API but it is significantly limited in comparison. I'm looking to replicate the functionality of the Windows API in OSX, (specifically window-level controls), but it looks like all Window/Visual commands are handled through Quartz Compositor.

If I can rewrite/extend/reverse engineer that module, I may be able to get the APIs I need.

Dennis E White21-Feb-14 5:12

21-Feb-14 5:12

Member 10608761 wrote:
I'm looking to replicate the functionality of the Windows API

And which Windows API would that be??

Member 10608761 wrote:
I have experience with Objective-C and iOS development, but slightly new to OSX.

How can you have experience in developing for iOS using Objective-C and yet be new to OSX? Confused | :confused:

The development of iOS apps with Objective-C is done in XCode which is only available for OSX. The only other alternative to XCode is AppCode[^] and even that only runs on OSX.

Member 1060876122-Feb-14 15:35

22-Feb-14 15:35

Sorry, meant slightly new to OSX development. I have been using the operating system for several years, but have never published a full app on it like I have for iOS.

Basically my problem is this: Windows treats everything like a window, where some of those windows belong to the same application. OSX treats everything as an application, where some of those applications have multiple windows.

When using APIs like the SendKeys[^] in Windows, you post messages to a specific window, and thus can post messages to multiple windows of different applications at the same time.

In OSX, that's not possible. Everything is done on the application level. You post messages through Quartz Event Services[^] to applications only. This is not idea for posting messages to two windows of the same application at the same time (two Word documents for instance if you wanted to copy a document). You can switch the active window, post a message, and switch back, but that is extremely noticeable to the user.

Quartz compositor must have a way of posting messages to individual fields on windows (whether or not the API is exposed) so if I could a) overwrite the existing system to expose this functionality or b) reverse engineer the quartz framework to check for hidden APIs. Either way is hard, and looking for suggestions.

Dennis E White19-Feb-14 4:36

19-Feb-14 4:36

Member 10608761 wrote:
Can I overwrite the existing desktop manager and replace their code with mine?

No.

But you can extend it if that is what you are looking for. I am sure with a simple google search you can find some examples that do this already.

Member 10608761 wrote:
Does anyone know where to begin?

Start by learning more about OSX and the way that you develop with it. I think that Richard gave you some starting points on this already. More importantly I think you need to understand more about Apple and what it's customers/users expect of the software they put on their machine(s).

Member 1060876121-Feb-14 0:41

21-Feb-14 0:41

It is possible to extend? I did a bit of googling, but to no avail. There are quartz APIs for intercepting graphics callbacks and simulating keystrokes (all things Quartz Compositor is good for), but none if it is as powerful as what I'm looking for.

Dennis E White21-Feb-14 4:57

21-Feb-14 4:57

Member 10608761 wrote:
(all things Quartz Compositor is good for)

Remember that I did say you can only extend. Smile | :)

Member 10608761 wrote:
but none if it is as powerful as what I'm looking for.

I think that I said this already but if your goal is to replace Window Manager then the answer to your very first question will be no. Without knowing what it is that you are looking to do I can't help you more than to speak in generic terms. Confused | :confused:

I had this teacher once that used to say to everyone in the class that "Generic questions get generic answers". It used to frustrate the hell out of me sometimes but I understood later what he was trying to achieve with everyone. He wanted us to do some research and sometimes by us researching it more we came up with our own answer.

food menu restaurant

Member 1047199011-Feb-14 0:26

Member 10471990

11-Feb-14 0:26

i want to make multi-tasking app in restaurant food menu,
there are two buttons
1.new order
2.in processing
Is there ay option after taking new order all saved items will be stored In processing (single button).

balaji

Re: food menu restaurant

Richard MacCutchan11-Feb-14 1:04

11-Feb-14 1:04

You probably need to use a class so you save all the details in in instance of that class. You could then keep all instances in a list and process them from there. However, given the lack of detail in your question it is difficult to be more specific.

Veni, vidi, abiit domum

Re: food menu restaurant

Dennis E White12-Feb-14 5:02

12-Feb-14 5:02

have you tried identifying the views for this app?? this might help you in achieving what you are going after for the app and create/answer questions to help you further along.

from what I am seeing so far I can envision at least 3 different views. one with the screen containing these two buttons you want and then a view that gets displayed for each button.

since in processing is a collection of orders you will probably have an array of some sort.

does all this information get sent to a server somewhere??

does the server store state of orders??

how do you talk to the server??

you really need to sit down and start asking yourself and your team (if you have one) a lot of questions about the app and what the problem is that you are trying to solve.

you want something inspirational??

Functions

JamieM9429-Jan-14 21:50

JamieM94

29-Jan-14 21:50

Hi,

I'm fairly new to objective C and I'm just learning how to use functions. In the below function I understand what the first line does but then the statements below have me a bit confused can anyone explain it to me? Its the "theBudget->budget" bit I dont understand.

Objective-C

void spendDollars (budget* theBudget, double dollars) {
theBudget->budget -= dollars;

Thanks for your help in advance Smile | :)

Re: Functions

Richard MacCutchan29-Jan-14 22:21

29-Jan-14 22:21

This is standard C notation, and a fundamental construct of the language. If you don't understand it, then you really need to go back to basics and get yourself an introductory book. The first parameter (theBudget) in the function declaration is a pointer to a budget object (Class or Structure). In the first line of the function the program is subtracting the value of the dollars item from the budget member of the object. A rather poor use of names calling a member of the object by the same name as the object type. In fact I'm not sure that that would not produce a compiler error or warning.

Veni, vidi, abiit domum

Re: Functions

JamieM9429-Jan-14 23:30

JamieM94

29-Jan-14 23:30

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the explanation. I am a beginner and this is an example they are using in an introductory book to explain functions. Going off what you have said this is a pretty poor example which is probably why I'm getting a bit confused.Thanks for the help Smile | :)

Re: Functions

Richard MacCutchan30-Jan-14 0:45