Re: AppKit (Win32) generals questions

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

On 9 May 2008, at 08:13, Fred Kiefer wrote:

> I agree, this is a great answer. Still before we put it into the FAQ  
> we may need to extend it a bit.
>
> There are of course two main interface classes between gui and back  
> one of them is GSDisplayServer, the one that has been talked about  
> and the other is NSGraphicsContext. The later does the actual  
> drawing whereas the former manages windows and events. This  
> separation is just great to have multiple graphics backends like  
> art, xlib and cairo share the same x11 display server. (OK, there is  
> room for improvement on this in our current implementation, but  
> there always is)
>
> We may also want to point out that there is already theming code out  
> there, written by Chrstopher Armstrong, that does the drawing of  
> controls with native Windows functionality. Perhaps later this year,  
> when the new theming framework is in place it will be possible to  
> make a clean release of that theme.
>
> As for the drawing into a native window, there is the method  
> initWithWindowRef: on NSWindow, which will create a GNUstep window  
> from a native window reference. Allowing you to carefully create an  
> NSView at the right place to draw into. This functionality requires  
> a method on the display server that is currently not implemented on  
> MS Window, but should be easy to add. (The only complex bit will be  
> the GWL_USERDATA)

I already added it, but yes, I'm sure it can be improved. Please go  
ahead and edit my original as you see fit.
It's at http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/User_FAQ