PasCocoa

PasCocoa is a Pascal bridge to the Cocoa API written for FPC. This package I have created are based off the original PasCocoa which can be found here. I therefore consider these to be additions to PasCocoa and name this project PasCocoaKit.

PasCocoaKit Additions

• Accessing instance variables to Pascal wrapper classes
• Memory management for dealing with wrappers, similar to Cocoa
• Complete AppKit/Foundation ported to Pascal
• Users work with wrappers almost exclusively, instead of using “handles” to Cocoa objects.
• Instantiating Pascal objects from InterfaceBuilder
• IBActions and IBOutlets
• A PHP parser script for the Cocoa frameworks
• Support for delegate methods
• Wrappers for overriding existing Cocoa classes

Example

Here is an example of what a PasCocoa program may look like written in PascalGladiator.

Download

The package contains source code examples, AppKit/Foundation interfaces, supporting binding code (including NSObjectCore the PasCocoa root class), framework parser script and short manual.

Please note FPC 2.2.4 or higher is required and I have not tested on PPC so assume this is Intel only, for now.

Download PasCocoaKit 0.2

• Download Cocoa framework parser PHP script.
• Download the latest source code examples.
• Download the latest interfaces (appkit/foundation and bindings).
  

Latest Changes

• Abstract methods were removed from NSDelegatesAll.inc to increase compiler performance.
• super_ prefixed methods were removed to increase compiler performance. You can access super now via inherited in an implemented_ method.
• Type “id” is no longer changed to NSObject for safety. You must manually create wrappers as needed.
• “alloc” was introduced to give inline access to accessor methods and Objective-C like syntax. This is not the same as alloc in Cocoa, you never need to alloc objects directly in PasCocoa.
• Protocols are parsed and implemented as procedural code. Read “PasCocoa Additions Guide” for more info.
• framework_parser.php now has a command line interface. To run cd the pascocoa folder then type “php framework_parser.php [switches]” in the terminal.
• Compiling with -CX -XX has fixed the massive binary issue! They are smaller now, about 800k, which still large for a 100 line program.
• New TableView example demonstrating NSTableView with drag and drop and NIBs.
• New HICocoaView example demonstrating how to use NSView in Carbon windows.

Documentation

There is a short manual explaining most the basics of PasCocoaKit here. Currently, it does not include instructions on how to use InterfaceBuilder, but the NIB’s are there to study.

I will make tutorial style documentation for the existing example code including screenshots of InterfaceBuilder, which can be confusing to explain.

Issues

• FPC needs better runtime support to avoid some annoying boiler plate code.
• I will make a PHP script eventually that will convert a Pascal unit into Objective-C for use with InterfaceBuilder which you can run periodically. Until then you will have to manually add actions, outlets and classes to the NIB file.
• IBActions and IBOutlets can’t be read from the NIB but until FPC has better runtime access and manipulation it won’t help very much.
• Methods that return structures (struct) are still not well tested. This is actually a potentially big issue and means that PasCocoa is not safe on Intel/PPC depending on certain methods. Read Mac OS X ABI Function Call Guide for more information.

Thank you in particular to Gorazd Krosl, Dmitry Boyarintsev and Jonas Maebe for answering constant questions for 2 solid months!