[Mono-osx] Feedback on Mono GUI on Mac

[Chuck Esterbrook]

I think it's great that Mono is moving forward with more Mac support
including a non-X driver for GUI. I've been using Mono on Mac for
awhile now, but entirely for command line work. Below is some feedback
on the GUI.

I'm on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and Mono 1.9_5. My source code is:

// begin winf.cs
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
public class Program {
	static public void Main() {
		Application.Run(NewForm());
	}
	static Form NewForm() {
		Form f = new Form();
		f.Text = "Testing 1, 2, 3, ...";
		TextBox tb = new TextBox();
		tb.AutoSize = true;
		tb.Text = "I am a TextBox.";
		tb.Parent = f;
		return f;
	}
}
// end winf.cs

I compile and run like so:
$ gmcs -r:System.Windows.Forms -t:winexe winf.cs
$ mono winf.exe

(1) The very first time I launched the program, it took long enough
that I thought the process was hung. There was a lot of hard drive
churning at first, but then that stopped and the CPU continued to
work. I killed it.

The second time I ran, I figured I'd give it longer. It launched after
75 seconds. My machine is a reasonably fast MacBook Pro with 2.33 GHz
Intel Core 2 Duo and 3GB.

Subsequent launches are fast.

Suggestion: If this startup time is unavoidable, then some kind of
window with a friendly message such as "Initializing font database for
the very first time... Please stand by." would improve the user
experience greatly.

(2) When the program launches, I see the window with the text box. If
I grab the window title bar and drag the window a few inches away, the
blinking cursor *stays* in its original screen position. It no longer
visibly exists in the text box or even the window.

This can be repeated by clicking in the text box and then dragging the window.

This is only a visibility issue. Typing into the text box works fine.

(3) The Apple menu is unusable. Clicking does not open the menu, beep
or anything. Same with the "mono" menu.

When I launch MonoDevelop, this problem does not exist. What secret
sauce can I add to the above program to solve this? Or is it a
WinForms problem? (I think MonoDevelop is on GTK, yes?)

(4) Choosing the "Quit" menu item off the Mac menu for MonoDevelop
does nothing. File --> Quit works fine. I suggest making the first one
work or removing it.

If you want any of these as tickets/issues, just let me know.

Best regards,
-Chuck