MacOSX backend

[nfoti]

Do you think it's possible to support the MacOSX backend?

[ViralBShah]

This requires fixing framework build issue that is discussed on the mailing list.

[stevengj]

@ViralBShah, graphics are supported on MacOSX via Qt or Gtk, it is only wx that doesn't work. However, I think @nfoti was referring to matplotlib's "native" MacOSX Cocoa backend. I looked into this, but unfortunately I didn't see any straightforward way to implement the Cocoa event loop from Julia (especially since Cocoa's event-loop routines seem to require Objective C).

[nfoti]

I was referring to the matplotlib's MacOSX backend. If it's a huge pain to implement then it's not a big deal. It just is nicer than QT on OSX.

Thanks.

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On Aug 16, 2013, at 7:10 AM, "Steven G. Johnson" notifications@github.com wrote:

@ViralBShah, graphics are supported on MacOSX via Qt or Gtk, it is only wx that doesn't work. However, I think @nfoti was referring to matplotlib's "native" MacOSX Cocoa backend. I looked into this, but unfortunately I didn't see any straightforward way to implement the Cocoa event loop from Julia (especially since Cocoa's event-loop routines seem to require Objective C).

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[stevengj]

I agree that it would be nicer, I just can't figure out any way to support its event loop in a non-blocking way. IPython doesn't seem to support it either, probably for the same reason. (@minrk, do you know anything about this?)

[minrk]

IPython does support the OS X backend. We use a matplotlib Timer object to put our do_one_iteration() inside the Cocoa eventloop. I imagine you could do the same.

[stevengj]

Hmm, it doesn't really seem acceptable to have Cocoa in charge of the event loop and to call Julia occasionally; it should be the other way around. Otherwise we lose Julia's ability to process other tasks asynchronously. cc: @JeffBezanson

What I looked for, and couldn't find, was some Cocoa function to process pending events and then return, similar to how we handle other toolkits now. Am I missing something?

[stevengj]

@minrk, do you use Timers now instead of the inputhook stuff?

[minrk]

inputhook is only for single-process terminal IPython - there is no inputhook in the Kernel.

[minrk]

What I looked for, and couldn't find, was some Cocoa function to process pending events and then return, similar to how we handle other toolkits now. Am I missing something?

If you find such a thing, it would certainly be preferable to the inversion of priority that IPython does currently.

[stevengj]

Hmm, it looks like CFRunLoopRunInMode, passing seconds=0.0, might do the trick, i.e. something like:

ccall(:CFRunLoopRunInMode, Int32, (Ptr{Void}, Float64, Uint8), 
      unsafe_load(cglobal(:kCFRunLoopDefaultMode, Ptr{Void})), 0.0, 0)

Doesn't seem to be working though; I must be missing something.

[sglyon]

Even without the official OSX background, is there a way to get this running on OSX? I use Anaconda Python and have tried all sorts of things, but continue to get various errors. If you would like more info, just let me know.

[stevengj]

I run it on MacOS X. If you install things yourself using pip and brew, rather than Anaconda, it works fine. The problem is that Anaconda's qt installation is broken.

Even with Anaconda, it works fine in IJulia for me, thanks to commit 8599ca0

[sglyon]

Thank you @stevengj. I have had problems with Anaconda running some of my PySide applications in the past so I am sure it is related to the broken qt.

I'll try one of my other python environments.