On 29 Oct 2009, at 15:41, Gregory Crosswhite wrote:

You don't have to turn a program into an application in order to make the GUI work

This is true, but I don't think it's better to import extra code where simple packaging (folders and a plist), which is actually very convenient, can do the job. On 29 Oct 2009, at 15:16, Miguel Mitrofanov wrote:

Isn't that what macosx-app is for?

Maybe, but it's no use if no one knows about it, and I just googled it and found this (and only this). http://darcs.haskell.org/wxhaskell/bin/macosx-app-template It's not in the documentation that came with my download of wxcore either. Hardly a great help to a newbie, like myself - is there any documentation? Is it a bash script or should I just guess and hope? Oh, sorry, I see it's in the unfindable wiki page! ;-) In contrast to both of these methods, my script is easy, quick, and doesn't rely on memory - just go to the OSX Applescript menu! It's less code (it doesn't even touch the code) and less work, just run an applescript and keep everything neat. Add to that, what I've done can be used generally, not just for wxHaskell (or even Haskell). Open up XCode and there are a lot of different types of projects to choose from, and then you have to know how to use the IDE. This is just a quick project set up for anything you want to do that is straightforward. Iain

On 29 Oct 2009, at 20:52, Miguel Mitrofanov wrote:

...

Open up XCode and there are a lot of different types of projects to choose from, and then you have to know how to use the IDE. This is just a quick project set up for anything you want to do that is straightforward.

So... Does it mean that you LIKE programming in XCode, even when using Haskell? Wow.

I don't understand what you mean? What I meant is that I never use XCode, and therefore I don't know which projects to choose or how to use it, and it would take a lot of time to change that.

Seems like it just works. Of course, I agree that it's a bit hard to find, but it's here without installing any third-party scripts.

macosx-app *is* a 3rd party script - it doesn't come with OSX does it? and it's still not as easy to use as an applescript. That's why applescript refuses to die while being the hardest language ever devised to write in. I also think the plist the macosx-app script builds isn't that good.

MigMit$ /usr/local/wxhaskell/bin/macosx-app --help

It's pretty difficult to run the --help arg if you don't know the script even exists. What's wrong with a README that says "If you're having problems running your executable on OSX then you need to use macosx-app in the bin dir..." ?

usage: macosx-app [options]

options: [defaults in brackets] --help | -? show this information --verbose | -v be verbose

help and verbose. That's not helpful at all. Use whichever method suits you best, but I shouldn't have to dick around all day finding badly documented scripts that don't even work as well as the one I had to do for myself, and perhaps others feel the same. Iain

On Oct 29, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Iain Barnett wrote:

On 29 Oct 2009, at 15:41, Gregory Crosswhite wrote:

...

You don't have to turn a program into an application in order to make the GUI work

This is true, but I don't think it's better to import extra code where simple packaging (folders and a plist), which is actually very convenient, can do the job.

It depends on what you are doing. I completely concur that in many (and perhaps most) cases your script is ideal, especially when one is packaging a program for distribution. However, although your packaging makes it easier to run the binary from the Finder, it makes it less convenient to run it from the command line, and in cases where for whatever reason you want to easily run it from the command line (which I have run into in practice) the EnableGUI module is very helpful. Cheers, Greg

Would someone like to make a Haskell wiki page explaining all this? Very helpful for people using wx for the first time. Maybe there is one already? Simon | -----Original Message----- | From: haskell-cafe-bounces@haskell.org [mailto:haskell-cafe-bounces@haskell.org] On | Behalf Of Gregory Crosswhite | Sent: 29 October 2009 15:44 | To: Iain Barnett; Haskell Cafe | Subject: Re: [Haskell-cafe] wxMac/wxHaskell focus problem, a quick solution | | You don't have to turn a program into an application in order to make | the GUI work, you just have to make some calls to enable GUI events to | be delivered to your program (or something like that, at least). I've | attached a script that I got from somewhere on the internet (can't | remember exactly where) that does this, so all you need to do is run | "enableGUI" at the beginning of "main", rather than having to do | additional packaging to make your program work. | | Cheers, | Greg |