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Author Topic: MacOS object / class structure  (Read 1217 times)

dbannon

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MacOS object / class structure
« on: September 28, 2020, 05:20:37 am »
Hi Folks, hoping someone who understands this better than me can point me in right direction.

While chasing a bug in RichMemo on Mac, that is, why GetTextLen does not work, I realised it also does not work for TMemo.  So, following the code I determined that the issue is in
lcl/interfaces/cocoa/cocoaWSCommon # 1762 TCocoaWSWinControl.GetTextLen(),

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]
  1. obj: NSObject;
  2. ...
  3. obj := NSObject(AWinControl.Handle);
  4. Result := obj.isKindOfClass_(NSControl);     // returns false

Decides that the passed handle is not a NSControl and exits. Neither TRichMemo nor TMemo are NSControls and GetTextLen does not work.  Thats does not surprise me. But I found that TEdit and TLabel work fine, they are NSControls. Surprise.

So, my question, how does a component, descended from TComponent, get to be a NSControl in Apple speak ?

NSControl, NSObject and obj.isKindOfClass_() are imported from Apple Object C headers.

And pointers gratefully received.

Davo

Lazarus 3, Linux (and reluctantly Win10/11, OSX Monterey)
My Project - https://github.com/tomboy-notes/tomboy-ng and my github - https://github.com/davidbannon

skalogryz

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Re: MacOS object / class structure
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2020, 06:27:47 am »
Cocoa "controls" are composite in nature. Where in WinAPI you'd have a single control for RICHEDIT or EDIT (Memo), in Cocoa these are two separate controls: NSTextViewand NSScrollView. (with NSTextView embedded into NSScrollView). NSTextViewby itself doesn't have any scrolling functionality (unlike RICHEDIT/EDIT in WinAPI), all scrolling is done by NSScrollView.

Thus mapping LCL TControl.Handle to something Cocoa, you need to be careful.

The returned handles are explained in this article.
For TMemo (and TRichMemo) the handle returned is NSScrollView.
In order to reach NSTextView, you need to do an extra step, like that:
Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]
  1. doc := NSTextView(NSScrollView(Memo1.Handle).documentView);

Aside note. NSControl is used only for a small amount of controls. Buttons, Single scrollbars, Trackbar, Progress bar and Single-line read-only edit. (The actual editing capabilities of Cocoa's TEdit is implemented via NSTextView and a special  fieldEditor mechanism)

While working with LCL one might get accustomed to "everything is Control". In Cocoa "control" is used for a very few UI elements. On the other hand, one may assume that "everything is NSView" in Cocoa :)

dbannon

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Re: MacOS object / class structure
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2020, 08:31:01 am »
Wow, a very comprehensive answer Skalogryz !

I thank you very much, I will work through what you say there, thanks !

Davo
Lazarus 3, Linux (and reluctantly Win10/11, OSX Monterey)
My Project - https://github.com/tomboy-notes/tomboy-ng and my github - https://github.com/davidbannon

 

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