path: root/doc/mac.doc

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/*!
\page mac-differences.html

\title Qt/Mac Issues

This file will outline known issues and possible workarounds for
limitations on Mac OS X with Qt. This list will not always be complete, so
please contact Trolltech support with issues you find to be missing.

See also the document \link qtmac-as-native.html Qt/Mac is Mac OS X
Native\endlink.

\tableofcontents

\section1 GUI Applications

GUI Applications must be run out of a bundle (something like widgets.app/)
or using the open(1) command. Mac OS X needs this to dispatch events correctly,
as well as gaining access to the menubar. If using GDB you must run with the 
full path to the executable.

\section1 QCursor

Due to Mac OS X having only 16x16 custom cursors QCursor is limited by this
as well. For now the only workaround to this problem is to use a small
cursor (16x16).

\section1 Anti-aliased text

Qt/Mac (starting with 3.0.5) has introduced some support for smooth text as
suggested by Apple's Aqua Style Guildelines. This support is limited to Mac
OS X >10.1.4, when this version is not detected it will fallback to the old
text rendering library.

\section1 Library Support

\section2 Bundle-based Libraries

If you want to incorporate dynamic libraries as part of your Mac OS X
application bundle (the application directory), then you place these into a
directory called Frameworks, a subdirectory of the application bundle.

The application finds these dynamic libraries if the libraries have an
install name of "@executable_path/../Frameworks/libname.dylib.

If you use qmake and Makefiles, use the QMAKE_LFFLAGS_SONAME setting:

\code
QMAKE_LFLAGS_SONAME  = -Wl,-install_name,@executable_path/../Frameworks/
\endcode

In case of Project Builder, you set the Library targets to have their
install path (in the Build Settings of the target) set to
"@executable_path/.../Frameworks". You also need to add a custom build
setting called "SKIP_INSTALL" and set this to YES. In the Application
target you need to add a Copy Files build phase that will copy the library
product into the applications wrapper's Framework sub-folder.

Note that DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables will override these
settings, same with any other default paths such as a lookup of dynamic
libraries inside /usr/lib and similar default locations.

We still strongly recommend to build static applications where the library
code is incorporated into the Mac OS X binary. However, in case you ship
applications that require plugin support,then you need to use dynamic
libraries as part of your application.


\section2 Combining Libraries

If you want to build a new dynamic library combining the Qt 3.1 dynamic
libraries, you need to introduce the ld -r flag so that relocation information
is stored in the the output file, so that this file could be the subject of 
another ld run. This is done by setting the -r flag in the .pro file, and the
LFLAGS settings.

\section2 Initialization Order

dyld(1) will call global static initializers in the order in which
they are linked into your application. If a library links against Qt
and references globals in Qt (from global initializers in your own
library) you should be sure to link against Qt before your library,
otherwise the result will be undefined (as Qt's global initializers
have not been called yet).

\section2 Plugin Support

Note that it is not possible to build Qt plugins using Project Builder
or Xcode. Use \link qmake-manual.book qmake\endlink to configure and
build plugins.

\section1 Compiler Settings

\section2 Compile-time Flags

If you want to wrap any specific Mac OS X code in a define, use the Q_OS_MACX
flag, as in:

\code
#if defined(Q_OS_MACX)
// the code used
#endif
\endcode

Note that when you build under Mac OS X 10.2, then the MACOSX_102 flag is
automatically included in the make builds.


\section1 Building and Configuring Qt/Mac

\section2 Problems building a static configuration

If a static build fails with the following error messages during the
designer make phase:

\code
QWidget::sizeHint() const referenced from libqui expected to be defined in @executable_path/../Frameworks/libqt-mt.3.dylib
non-virtual thunk [nv:-40] to QWidget::metric(int) const referenced from libqui
 expected to be defined in @executable_path/../Frameworks/libqt-mt.3.dylib
\endcode

then ensure that your library path does not have libqui libraries or
symbolic links. If you remove these, then the build will continue.


\section1 Macintosh Native API Access

\section2 Accessing the Bundle Path

The Macintosh application is actually a directory (ending with .app). This
directory has various other sub-directories and sources. In case you want
to place for example the plugin directory inside this bundle, then you need
to find out where the bundle resides on the disk. The following code will
do this:

\code
        CFURLRef pluginRef = CFBundleCopyBundleURL(CFBundleGetMainBundle());
        CFStringRef macPath = CFURLCopyFileSystemPath(pluginRef, 
                                               kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle);
        const char *pathPtr = CFStringGetCStringPtr(macPath, 
                                               CFStringGetSystemEncoding());
        qDebug("Path = %s", pathPtr);
        CFRelease(pluginRef);
        CFRelease(macPath);
\endcode

Do not forget to enclosure this in an #if defined(Q_OS_MACX) macro statement.

\section2 Translating the Application Menu and native dialogs

You need to do a little extra to get the Application Menu and native dialogs
localized. This is a requirement of Mac OS X and not of Qt.

First, you must add a localized resource folder inside the Bundle see:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFBundles/index.html

And look for the heading: Adding Localized Resources

The main thing you need to do is create a file called locversion.plist.
Here is an example one for Norwegian:

\code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>LprojCompatibleVersion</key>
        <string>123</string>
        <key>LprojLocale</key>
        <string>no</string>
        <key>LprojRevisionLevel</key>
        <string>1</string>
        <key>LprojVersion</key>
        <string>123</string>
</dict>
</plist>
\endcode

Then when you run the application with your preferred language set to Norwegian
you should see menu items like "Avslutt" instead of "Quit"

\section1 User Interface

\section2 Right-Mouse Clicks

If you want to provide right-mouse click support for Mac OS X, use the
QContextMenuEvent class. This will map to a context menu event, in other
words a menu that will display a popup selection. This is the most common
use of right-mouse clicks, and maps to a control-click with the Mac OS X
one-button mouse support.

\section2 Menubar

Qt/Mac will automatically detect your menubars for you and turn them
into Mac native menubars. Fitting this into your existing Qt application
will normally be automatic, however, if you have special needs the Qt/Mac
implementation currently selects a menubar by starting at the active window
(ie QApplication::activeWindow()), and applying:

1) If the window has a QMenuBar then it is used.
2) If the window is a modal then its menubar is used. If no menubar is
   specified then a default menubar is used (as documented below)
3) If the window has no parent then the default menubar is used (as documented below).

The above 3 steps are applied all the way up the parent window chain until
one of the above are satisifed. If all else fails a default menubar will be
created, the default menubar on Qt/Mac is an empty menubar, however you can
create a different default menubar by creating a parentless QMenuBar, the
first one created will thus be designated the default menubar, and will be
used whenever a default menubar is needed.

\section1 Limitations

\section2 MenuItems

\list

\i QCustomMenuItems are not supported in Mac native menubars, they are supported
in popupmenus that are not in the Mac native menubar.

\i Items with accelerators that have more than one keystroke
(QKeySequence) will not be honored, and the first key will be used.

\endlist

\section2 Unsupported Native Widgets

Qt/Mac 3.x has no support for sheets or drawers. Support for these types of windows is provided in Qt/Mac 4.x.
*/