GUI program on Mac OS in D?

[Jacob Carlborg]

On 2017-11-24 16:09, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

> Thanks, this gets me started.
> 
> Do you happen to know if there is anything like "pragma(lib)" for the 
> -framework argument? (I don't use dub, so I took your config there to 
> make my own command line, but it would be nice if I didn't have to 
> specify the framework. I use pragma(lib) on Windows and Linux so infer 
> it automatically.)

There's not [1].

> So my plan here is to get more of my libs working on Mac: update the old 
> simpledisplay.d port so it runs on the native api again (currently it 
> just uses XQuartz),

I think you should start by deciding if you want to use any .nib files 
or not. If you do use .nib files there is quite a lot of code that can 
be removed from my sample application.

> then make my simpleaudio.d use OpenAL which I hear 
> has been included with the mac os for some time

Yes, it's included. Apple has several audio frameworks [2], where OpenAL 
is one of them, for different purposes and different levels.

> , then maybe even move on 
> to minigui.d and have it use some native controls too, if reasonable
> But the first step is just creating a basic window and your code worked, 
> so thanks, I am on the path now...

BTW, the following line [3] of the Dub file will embed the Info.plist 
file in the executable, which can be handy if you don't want to use 
application bundles. The Info.plist file is not always necessary, I 
think my sample application will work without it, but for some things is 
necessary.

I also have a Dockerfile [4] with a cross-compiler setup that targets macOS.

You should also know that there's a bug in DMD, which I haven't manged 
to fix, that occurs when returning certain structs from Objective-C 
methods. I'm pretty sure if works correctly in LDC, since it's using the 
LLVM backend that already knows about Objective-C.

Finally, since you're using D you'll not have ARC (Automatic Reference 
Counting) which these days are preformed by the Objective-C and Swift 
compilers. You'll need to resort to traditional release/retain calls 
where appropriate. I have not included those calls in my sample application.

If you decide to use DStep, please file bugs and let me know how it 
works. It has not been battle tested for Objective-C code.

[1] https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2968

[2] 
https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MusicAudio/Conceptual/CoreAudioOverview/CoreAudioFrameworks/CoreAudioFrameworks.html

[3] https://github.com/jacob-carlborg/d_webkit_test/blob/master/dub.sdl#L12

[4] 
https://github.com/jacob-carlborg/docker-ldc-darwin/blob/master/Dockerfile

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg