[Mono-osx] Why not implement WPF using OpenGL on Mac OS X?

[Mac Programmer]

 > The general problem is, developers want a nice, common API; but users
 > want software that integrates nicely into their OS and its particular
 > look-and-feel. So either you use cross-platform toolkits, limiting  
you
 > to a common denominator (think AWT), or you make lots of costly
 > special solutions to make your users happy.

Nice summary of what is commonly thought to be the problem, but I'm  
not sure you make your case with the examples you cite:

 > On Mac OS X some issues that come to mind are that the menu  
deviates from most other platforms in not being window-specific,

Actually, the Mac menu bar _is_ window-specific. It only displays the  
menu of the application that has the focus. OS X sacrifices a bit of  
screen real estate for this, but the alternative is to give up screen  
real estate for every window that has a menu, as in Windows. I'm hard  
pressed to come up with a justification for the Windows approach.  
Maybe that's why Windows used such a small font for menus, to save  
screen area. The only benefit that I can see is that you can see the  
top-level menu bar items (File, Edit, etc.) for windows that don't  
have the focus (and presumably are not covered by other windows). Not  
really very useful information.


 > it prefers window-attached sheets over application-modal dialogs,

The last time I checked, I couldn't find very many apps that used  
sheets. In any case, OS X doesn't "prefer" modal sheets over modal  
windows. I haven't seen anything in Apple's docs that suggests sheets  
are preferable. And I'm not sure why implementing a modal form as a  
sheet vs. a window would make much difference in the design of the  
widgetset.


 > control layout is different everywhere, menu naming/translation  
deviates, etc.

Isn't this really up to the app developer, not the widgetset? If  
you're using absolute postioning of individual controls, are you sure  
you want what you're implying: that the widgetset moves things around  
for you?

Thanks.

-Phil

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