Re: [platform-swt-dev] Re: Mac OS X Port by Carolyn MacLeod

[Martin Sturzenhecker <msturzen@xxxxxxx>]

Hi,

it´s great to see you support us!
If you create a mac os x port mailing list could you automatically 
subscribe me, please?

1) How can we increase the probability to get PMC approval?
2) I suppose it will be hard to find someone who is an experienced 
programmer to Cocoa, since it´s a rather new API
3) still working through the documents...



Regarding to the things to keep in mind:

- licensing issues:  I´m not sure about this. Is Java-Cocoa published 
under APSL or can you use it as you like?

- size of jar file: the size of the directories in my system are (there 
are no jar files):
    i. application: 708 KB
    ii. foundation: 424 KB
  That´s not too much I suppose.

- discard unused API: since cocoa is part of the system it´s not 
possible to discard anything.

- direct mapping to the OS: don´t know how direct the mapping is.

- OS versions supported: Mac OS X v. 10.1 and higher for sure, maybe v. 
10.0 too

Regarding the articles to mentioned:
- one-to-one mapping:
  As is stated in the document: "Java is a powerful high level 
language [...]. Why use C?"
  Everything said about the benefits of one-to-one mapping applies to 
Java-Cocoa as well as any platform using C-natives.
  The Java-Cocoa wrapper leverages us from using JNI. We can use the 
Java-Cocoa in the implementation of the public API of the SWT classes.

- thin layer between the application and the OS:
  "efficient" - I can`t think of a thinner layer on top of the OS than 
Java-Cocoa
  "portable" - In Java-Cocoa there´s nothing interesting in the 
C-natives since they don´t exist. The classes supplied by the 
Cocoa-framework show the way directly into the heart of the OS.

As for performance issues:
I´d suggest to write a test suite for Java-Cocoa and the same for 
ObjectiveC-Cocoa and finally compare the results. This seems the only 
way to get some reliable performance comparison. This hopefully helps to 
find the path to go for the port.
What elements should such a test suite consist of? Any suggestions?
How can one measure the performance of ui-elements?


martin