Edward Peterlin and Dan Williams!
(some of your MacOS X OpenOffice.org porters)
Last Updated 09/08/02 22:22
Created July 28, 2002
We need your help! The OpenOffice.org team needs development volunteers to help us begin debugging OpenOffice.org for MacOS X, raise awareness about our community port, and help us kick off the final stretch! Two guys just can't do this alone. See the official Mac porting website or the main OpenOffice.org website to find out more about how you can help!!
09/08/02 22:22: Initial ATSUI support.
09/02/02 02:25: Aquafication of progress bars, status areas and menus draw aqua backgrounds
09/01/02 17:39: Toolbars now draw aqua backgrounds
08/25/02 21:15: Tab bars now draw aqua controls.
08/25/02 13:58: Aquafication of combo boxes and spinner controls
08/24/02 16:51: First implementation of Aqua popup menu buttons.
08/15/02 00:35: Initial aquafication of scrollbars complete. Minor problems with initial button state and hit testing remain.
08/04/02 20:01: Clipping regions for radio buttons and checkboxes no longer cutoff the right hand side of the Aqua checkbox or radio. New screenshot posted.
07/31/02 22:01: I got beveled buttons for images drawing. New simpress screenshot posted.
07/31/02 12:55: Ack! I've just been slashdotted. I'm moving things around now to a mirror so people can see the pretty pictures. The DSL in my basement doesn't like being fisted.
07/30/02 19:03: My server's getting hammered and under this load I've got like 40% packet loss. I split the page up so hopefully it'll at least load. Be patient...and realize you can still load with images off to read all the text here and get instructions
07/30/02 01:14: I got window resizing in the Quartz VCL to function. Now you can actually resize windows and watch them redraw. I think below is the first screenshot of an sdraw window actually displaying all its menus!
07/30/02 00:16: Dan's got the Aqua window background drawing! Check out the new setup screnshots below :) I'm getting ready to sit down and relax after an interesting day and look into window resizing and getting those radiobuttons and checkboxes to stop clipping.
Over the last two days, Dan Williams and I have undertaken some proof of concept work to illustrate the feasibility of getting OpenOffice.org drawing using the beloved Aqua interface that makes MacOS X so distinctive. This work was done in OO638C_MacOSX, the only OOo currently building for Quartz graphics. Screenshots of what OOo looks like with this preliminary Aquafication appear below.
This work is generated purely by the community without help from any funded entity. And it is not in Java, but in C++/ObjC calling directly to System frameworks. The community has been undertaking quite an effort with this port, and this prototype shows just what this community is capable of.
These patches are not finished. We are currently in the process of getting Aqua style backgrounds for windows and fixing various resizing bugs in the windowing layer.
As our proof of concept, the following controls and features have been migrated to Aqua equivalents:
Controls that have text elements are using antialised labels in the standard MacOS X system fonts with the exception of popup menus that require custom drawing of entries.
There are still many unaquafied controls, but this shows that Aquafication is a possibility, even with the current incarnation of the Quartz VCL in as much of a shambles as it is, and with this build, I daresay it can easily become a reality.
Click on each thumbnail to obtain a larger version of the screenshot. Descriptions are beneath each screenshot's thumbnail below. Some have dates as to when they were added, all non-dated ones are from the original page!:
09/08/02 22:22 We've got our first Mac native Unicode font support.
09/02/02 02:25: Status areas, enubars and menus now draw with the Aqua background although they are still OOo menus and not migrated up to the main menubar. That will take some more extensive mapping, but at least this looks a little better now :)
08/24/02 16:53 sdraw showing initial implementation of Aqua popup menu buttons. The popup menus themselves are still scrolling list boxes and there are clipping problems, but the base approach is nifty. Compare to the shot below! Also note that now I'm on 10.2, so the controls do take on the 10.2 Aqua modifications.
08/04/02 20:01: Print option pane showing removal of cutoff of checkboxes and radio buttons.
07/30/02 00:18: Setup application startup screen, this time with the traditional Aqua background! Screenshot by Dan Williams
You can look at some earlier screenshots as well to check out the evolution of the patch! Please have patience with and mercy on the connection, but be assured that the three above are the best ones!
As the initial process consisted of two days, and alebit being a hack, it does illustrate that the process of Aquafication of OpenOffice.org is feasible. The more complex task is to fix up the Quartz VCL, transition it to pure core graphics, and determine how to adjust the user interface itself to adhere to Aqua conventions. Drawing Aquafied controls does not make OpenOffice.org a great Mac application, but it is a crucial step along the path to one.
Source code patches for this will not be made available before they are complete. I am providing binaries to allow the intrepid who have built OO638C_MacOSX Quartz and gotten through the setup application.
Prerequisite: a full Quartz OO638C build.
Download: nu.aqua.libs.tar.gz
To Install: cd /ooo-install; tar xvfz nu.aqua.libs.tar.gz
These new binary libraries replace the old libraries built by the vcl, svtools, toolkit, svx, so3, and sfx modules with new code for drawing the Aquafied controls. As always, these are unsupported and are provided only for your viewing pleasure :)
Note that these binaries do not include all of the functionality above, but illustrate the initial results of the patch with Aqua button drawing for pushbuttons, checkboxes, and radios along with antialiased text.