It is kinda wild that Apple's Objective-C NSPasteboard API is a wrapper over a (private) CFPasteboard API, and there's an awkward Carbon-era C Pasteboard API in ApplicationServices that's also a wrapper over the same (private) CFPasteboard API, but that CFPasteboard API itself is not publicly exposed.
It exists, and it works, but it's not in any of the headers so you can't really use it.
Just had to rewrite a bunch of the placement logic for Octavo, my PDF imposition/printing Mac app. It was a bit of a rabbit hole, there were a bunch of bugs and bad assumptions interacting together, and as soon as I wanted to place a page slot rotated 90 degrees, they all came to the surface.
Fixed and unit tested now.
As a reminder, the TestFlight beta is open: https://octavo.pro
Did I create a whole-ass layout in SwiftUI that looks like a real, native Mac email app to be the hero image for my Macintosh Guidelines (Mario's Mac HIG) webpage?
Yes, yes I did...
(and don't forget to read my all new HIG topic on Sidebars!)
#macOS #HIG #SwiftUI #AppKit
https://marioaguzman.github.io/design/
Working on some more liquid glass in Octavo.
Every time I used a stock-NSTableView, changing the “Sidebar icon size” setting in System Settings would make the text labels in said TableView larger but not the actual row view.
Well, I think I've just figured it out with one setting and one protocol conformance method...
Although some documentation somewhere I read said that only Source Lists (Sidebars) should adapt to this behavior... Seems kinda useful tbh.
I came across a strange macOS Tahoe bug when working on an AppKit app with a table. I managed to find a workaround, but since I was unable to find any solutions online, I thought I would post my discoveries in case they could help others.
The issue is that the content rows scroll into the header unless the table stretches to the bottom of the content view.
Full write-up here but one workaround is to add space at the top of the table as well: https://troz.net/post/2026/appkit-table-scroll-bug-in-macos-tahoe/
And one more for tonight: Octavo's Imposition Settings getting a Mac look-and-feel makeover. It's not perfect yet, but it's already looking more Mac-like than before!
What do you folks think of this liquid glass sidebar? I was going to avoid liquid glassing my sidebar since it's not full height etc, but it seems to work here better than in apps where it is!
Another before/after of making some of Octavo’s UI more Mac-like. I’m using (a rather heavily modified version of) CocoaCompose by @pasi and it's already looking a lot better than before!
Now to move on to the more complicated panes.
Anyone ever had an issue in #AppKit where constraining the centerYAnchor equal to another constraint + a constant is *subtracting* the constant rather than adding it?
I am in an NSView with a non-flipped geometry. This is really baffling me. A positive constant should move the view upward, and a negative should move it downward. I'm getting the opposite behaviour.
/cc @pasi @marioguzman
Have y’all tried this fancy thing called #AppKit?
You can totally override the way things draw in say like NSTableView by overriding NSTableHeaderCell/override func drawInterior(withFrame cellFrame: NSRect, in controlView: NSView). I made mine a bit darker because for some reason, Apple decided everything should be white, white, white.
I have a much more powerful table by using NSTableView over SwiftUI's `Table` in my SwiftUI app. :) ;)
Before/After
Sweating the details on this paywall button. Getting concentricity on MacOS was surprisingly difficult. Now to figure out hover state and pressed state — which you don't get for free and also seem difficult!
(Pricing is a placeholder, not totally decided yet, fwiw.)
Well, I guess I can't really escape #AppKit if I wanted to in my #SwiftUI re-write on macOS.
The table is NSTableView, the bottom is NSTextView, both contained by NSSplitViewController. The rest is SwiftUI though...
The problem is that their respective Table, Text, and VSplitView in SwiftUI just are so bare-minimum implementations.
For example, VSplitView does not persist between view changes or app restarts where to position the splitter. It's annoying. NSSplitViewController can persist it.
It's back to school time here in Australia, so I want to remind people that I offer an educational discount on my books: macOS Apps Step by Step: https://troz.net/books/macos_apps_step_by_step and Escape from Tutorial Hell: https://troz.net/books/escape
Email me at books@troz.net telling me what & where you study/teach and I'll send you a discount link for both.
If you're in the education sector, please boost this post.
Anyway, been using NSTableView for my #SwiftUI version of #PDXTransit since it is far more customizable and powerful than `Table`.
More recently I have been working on my second macOS app, #Oliphaunt. A Mastodon client for the federated social network built on the ActivityPub protocol. Developing it taught me a great deal about persistence, concurrency, networking, design patterns plus more. I am keen to return to HacKit to apply this knowledge, improve the app further and work on an iOS port.
You can download HacKit here: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1549557075
