I am working on my Tcl/Tk GUI (written through Tcl::pTk in Perl). Am I correct that Tcl/Tk widgets (entry, text, etc.) can not take as input the Speach to Text (Dictation) input of macOS (HighSierra)? I can input in pretty any software I have installed on my computer, exept from my own GUI and another software written in Tcl/Tk. Is there anything I can do, or I just have to accept it as not possible to achive?
Cheers
Kelly
I tried the widget demos for both Tcl/Tk and Tcl::pTk (which is something I've been doing rather often to check if an issue is in Tcl/Tk or just Tcl::pTk). I'm using Tk 8.6.8 on macOS 10.13.6 (note that recent macOS comes with an older version of Tcl/Tk: 8.5.9 on macOS 10.13).
I'm able to press fn twice to dictate into Tcl/Tk text and entry demos just fine:
But for the Tcl::pTk demos, I can't get it to work for an entry widget, and it's difficult to get it to work for a text widget (sometimes the dictation balloon doesn't show up on the first try, or if I focus on another text widget, then the dictation balloon might appear for that other widget instead).
Sometimes the dictation balloon shows up for ROText widgets, which doesn't cause anything to get typed, but still isn't ideal.
I'm not sure what's preventing dictation from working in Tcl::pTk, but since this is a rather basic accessibility feature, it would be great if it worked. This would be good for a bug report/feature request for Tcl::pTk.
Update: I've since observed difficulty using dictation even in pure Tcl/Tk examples, so I've opened a ticket: https://core.tcl.tk/tk/tktview/fdbdcc8c3c
I want to create a very simple CAD application written with GLUT library. I just need this to create simple dice editor application for computer graphics class, so an easy-to-use GUI library that supported GLUT is what I basically need for this project. I stumble upon GLUI, but it doesn't have widgets such as color chooser or file loader dialog. Is there a suitable GUI library for GLUT that I can use?
There are gui libraries like Qt or FLKT, but they have their own main loop.
on windows you should call directly the native files dialogs GetOpenFileName() and GetSaveFileName(). If you want a cross platform solution and to exactly answer the question, yes there is "a suitable GUI library for GLUT that (you) can use": look for tiny file dialogs on sourceforge it even has a color chooser and has no main loop.
You want a simple GUI library yet you want it to have advanced features.
Open File Dialog
Depending on what OS you want it to be running on you can pop up the OS specific file opening dialog. It does not have to be shown inside of the application window. Instead let it pop a new window with the OS file open dialog.
Color Chooser
Implementation of a simple Color Picker widget is not that hard really. Three sliders for RGB and a box to show the color chosen.
You can also use the OS (Windows) specific color picker. And skip the implementation inside you app altogether.
So I'm learning wxPython and am converting an application I wrote in python + Tk to wxPython. I'm new to the framework and have just read the getting started page on the wxPython site. I'm wondering if anyone knows off-hand the wxPython equivalent for Tk.iconbitmap so that I can put a small image on the corner of the main window?
That would be wx.Icon.
You can use wx.TopLevelWindow.SetIcon() to apply one to your main window.
I have a project that I am attempting to do and we want something similar to what the Apple store does. We thought it was a Quartz Composer interactive desktop but I've been putting together an xcode cocoa solution to do it too.
Here is an image of what I'm wondering about it is just a Title and 3 images that link out to url locations. If anyone can point me in the direction they believe can make something like this I would appreciate it.
I have used Quartz Desktop to display a .qtz but it isn't interactive. If anyone knows of another quartz desktop displaying .app that does use the interactive parts such as mouse and keyboard, it would be appreciated.
Applestore demo http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/614/dsc03934y.jpg
It's a custom proprietary program called, if I remember correctly, Concierge. But it's not doing anything tricky. You can make any NSWindow appear on the desktop by setting its window level to kCGDesktopWindowLevel.
I'm from a Windows programming background when writing tools, but have been programming using Carbon and Cocoa for the past year. I have introduced myself to Mac by, I admit it, hiding from UI programming. I've been basically wapping my OpenGL code in a view, then staying in my comfort zone using my platform agnostic OpenGL C++ code as usual.
However, now I want to start porting one of my more sophisticated applications to Mac OS.
Typically I use the standard Visual Studio dockable MDI approach, which is excellent, but very Windows-like. From using a Mac primarily now for a while, I don't tend to see this sort of method used for Mac UIs. Even Xcode doesn't support the idea of drag and drop/dockable views, unfortunately. I see docked views with splitter panels, but that's about it.
The closest thing I've seen to the Visual Studio approach is Photoshop CS4, which is pretty nice.
So what is the general consensus on this? Is there are more Mac-like way of achieving the same thing that I haven't seen? If not, I'm happy to write a window manager in Cocoa myself, so that I can finally delve in an learn what looks like an excellent API.
Note, I don't want to use QT or any other cross-platform libraries. The whole point is that I want to make a Mac app look like a Mac app, leave the Windows app looking like a Windows app. I always find the cross-platform libraries tend to lose this effect, and when I see a native Mac UI, with fancy Cocoa transitions and animations, I always smile. It's also a good excuse for me to learn Cocoa.
That being said, if there is an Open Source Cocoa library to do this, I'd love to know about it! I'd love to see how someone else achieves this, and would help smooth the Cocoa learning curve.
Cheers,
Shane
UPDATE: I forgot to mention a critical point. I support plugins, which can have their own UI to display various plugin specific information. I don't know which plugins will be loaded and I don't know where their UI will live, if I don't support docking. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this, specifically: How do I support a plugin view architecture, if the UI can't change? Where do I put the plugin views?
Coming from a Windows background, you feel the need to have docking windows, but is it really essential to the app? Apple's philosophy (in my opinion) is that the designer knows better than the user how things should look and work. For example, iTunes is a pretty sophisticated app, but it doesn't let you change the UI around, change the skin, etc., because Apple wants to keep it consistent. They offer the full view, the mini player, and a handful of different viewing options, but they don't let you pull the source list off into a separate window, or dock it in other positions. They think it should be on the left, so there it stays...
You said you "want to make a Mac app look like a Mac app", and as you pointed out, Mac apps don't tend to have docking windows. Therefore, implementing your own docking windows is probably a step in the wrong direction ;)
+1 to Ken's answer.
From a user perspective unless its integral to the app like it is in Adobe CS or Eclipse i want everything as concise as possible and all the different options and displays out of my way so i can focus on the document.
I think you will find with mac users that those who have the "user skill" to make use of rearranging panels will in most cases opt for hot key bindings instead, and those who dont have that level of "skill" youre just going to confuse.
I would recommend keeping it as simple as possible.
One thing that's common among many Mac apps is the ability to hide all the chrome and focus on your content. That's the point behind the "tic tac" toolbar control in the top right corner of many windows. A serious weakness of many docking UIs is that they expect you to have the window take up most of the screen, because the docked panels can obscure content. Even if docked panels are collapsable, the space left by them is often just wasted and filled with white space. So, if you build a docking panel into your interface, you should expect it to be visible most of the time. For example, iTunes' source list is clearly designed to be visible all the time, but you can double-click a playlist to open it in a new window.
To get used to the range of Mac controls, I'd suggest you try doing some serious work with some apps that don't have a cross-platform UI; for example, the iWork apps, Interface Builder or Preview. Take note of where controls appear and why—in toolbars, in bottom bars, in inspectors, in source lists/sidebars, in panels such as IB's Library or the Font and Color panels, in contextual HUDs. Don't forget the menu bar either. Get an idea of the feel of controls—their responsiveness, modality, sizing, grouping and consistency. Try to develop some taste—not everything is perfect; just try iCal if you want to have something to make fun of.
Note that there's no "one size fits all" for controls, which can be an issue with docking UIs. It's important to think about workflow: how commonly used the control would be, whether you can replace it with direct manipulation, whether a visible indication of its state is necessary, whether it's operable from the keyboard and mouse where appropriate, and so forth. Figure out how the control's placement and behavior lets the user work more efficiently.
As a simple example of example of a good versus bad control placement and behavior in otherwise-decent applications, compare image masking in OmniGraffle and Keynote. In OmniGraffle, this uses the Image inspector where you have to first click on an unlabeled button ("Natural size") in order to enable the appropriate controls, then adjust size and position away in a low-fidelity fashion with an image thumbnail or by typing percentages into fields. Trying to resize the frame directly behaves in a bizarre and counterintuitive fashion.
In Keynote, masking starts with a sensibly named menu item or toolbar item, uses a HUD which pops up the instant you click on a masked image and allows for direct manipulation including a sensible display of the extent of the image you're masking. While you're dragging a masked image around, it even follows the guides. Advanced users can ignore the HUD entirely, just double-clicking the image to toggle mask editing and using the handles for sizing. It should be easy to see, with a few caveats (e.g. the state of "Edit Mask" mode should be visible in the HUD rather than just from the image; the outer border of the image you're masking should be more effectively used) Keynote is substantially better at this, in part because it doesn't use an inspector.
That said, if you do have a huge number of options and the standard tabbed inspector layout doesn't work for you, check out the Omni Group's OmniInspector framework. Try to use it for good, and hopefully you'll figure out how to obsess over UI as much as you do over graphics now :-)
(running in slow motion, reaching out in panic) Nnnnnoooooooo!!!!!
:-) Seriously, as I mentioned in reply to Ken's excellent answer, trying to force a "Windowsism" on an OS X UI is definitely a bad idea. In my opinion, the biggest problem with Windows UI is third-party developers inventing new and inconsistent ways of presenting UI, rather than being consistent and following established conventions. To a Mac user, that's the sign of a terrible application. It's that way for a reason.
I encourage you to rethink your UI app's implementation from the ground up with the Mac OS in mind. If you've done your job well, the architecture and model (sans platform-specific implementation) should clearly translate to any platform.
In terms of UI, you've been using a Mac for a year, so you should have a pretty good idea of "the norm". If you have doubts, it's best to post a question specifically detailing what you need to present and your thoughts on how you might do it (or asking how if you have no idea).
Just don't whack your app with the ugly stick by forcing it to behave as if it were running in Windows when it's clearly not. That's the kiss of death for an app to Mac users.