macOS support; agenda item ESC

[Thorsten Wagner]

Hi all,

in addition to Julien's topics (see separate post in reply to Michael's question) some further points:

(1) It is still not possible to use macOS SDK 10.15 due to blurry text on retina displays. Current workaround is using SDK 10.13. SDK 10.15 is a prerequisite to support current features like dark mode, which is not implemented today.

(2) I am not sure whether SKIA is really working on macOS. Although I have not investigated this in detail, my understanding is that SKIA is currently only implemented for Linux and Windows. If this is correct SKIA preference option is misleading for macOS. For macOS SKIA is an interesting option as Open GL is deprecated on macOS and SKIA has Metal support. On the other hand Open GL should not be disabled until a replacement has been implemented for macOS too.

(3) macOS full screen mode has been disabled in favor of LO's full screen handling. Due to lacks in LO's full screen implementation for macOS this is the right decision for the time being. macOS full screen mode is a frequently used feature especially on laptops. Current workaround is usable but not Mac-like.

(4) Display of UI elements depends on old Carbon code (HIToolbox). Although some Cocoa elements are currently in use, a complete switch to Cocoa would require a larger redesign of VCL (not only for the macOS specific part). Due to use of HIToolbox some UI elements (e.g. dropdown list frames) are rendered not native and do not look Mac-like. Beside this current VCL design causes a non Mac-like handling of dialogs, e.g. button highlighting and behaviour of default buttons.

Overall code changes concernig UI seem not to be tested on macOS regulary causing regressions. An example is tdf#131549 which seems to be such a severe regression and causes LO 7 not to be usable on macOS currently.

Thorsten

Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael Meeks <michael.meeks at collabora.com>
Subject: Re: MacOS support; agenda item ESC
Date: 24. April 2020 at 11:02:49 CEST
To: Telesto <telesto at surfxs.nl>
Cc: libreoffice at lists.freedesktop.org

Hi there,

On 23/04/2020 20:41, Telesto wrote:
> The LibreOffice MacOS support is pretty dramatic.

	Sooo ... Collabora has been focused elsewhere for a while, but some
app-store budget to invest in Mac fixing has accumulated. I'd like to
address some of these issues and get it updated on the store; but
helping to build a list of specific things to address would be
worthwhile I guess.

> The Mac code is legacy as far I know. There are enough
> depreciation warning within the code. It still surprises
> me it's still working; more or less. It really needs some love.

	Glad it's working (more or less =)

	Is your concern deprecation warnings during compile time ? or use of
deprecated API ? Normally we've focused on end-user feature/function
problems rather than compile-time deprecation warnings.

	Ultimately - there is plenty of bit-rot to go around, last time I did a
UWP  API analysis eg. our multimedia support on Windows needed
re-writing for the Media Foundation APIs - instead of using DirectShow
and so on. Then again, Microsoft seem to have stepped far away from
demanding that UWP is required - and stopped their aggressive API
deprecation approach there.

	Of course, getting rid of GDI has been important for me at least, as
well as the font work to use DirectWrite and then the use of Skia has
moved us towards something rather current for rendering. I'd like to
move towards using Skia to share more of the underlying rendering code
on the Mac too.

	So - do you have a list of concerns ? (or more ideally user visible
bugs here).

	Ultimately re-writing working code to handle deprecation issues before
we're forced to is not terribly glorious - it creates ~unavoidable
regressions for a future benefit =)

	ATB,

		Michael.

-- 
michael.meeks at collabora.com <><, GM Collabora Productivity
Hangout: mejmeeks at gmail.com, Skype: mmeeks
(M) +44 7795 666 147 - timezone usually UK / Europe
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