Re: [AD] More OSX Allegro Notes

[Charles Wardlaw <kattkieru@xxxxxxxxxx>]

--- Angelo Mottola <a.mottola@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> OSX Allegro uses magic main replamenent that works this way: on
> startup a cocoa NSApplication object is created (thus a connection 
> with the window server is enstablished), then it is registered with
> the dock (and you see the icon popping out there) and then it spawns 
> a thread running the user main() function, while the main application

> thread fetches and handles system events. What can be done is not to
> register the app with the dock if ALLEGRO_USE_CONSOLE is defined, but

> an NSApplication object is needed to handle system events. But I
> wonder if this makes much sense at all. Thoughts?

It actually makes perfect sense, in that "allegro uses black magic to
change your main()" kind of way. ^_^;;

I think the not registering the icon with the dock would be the way to
go.  Is that a possibility?  It's just weird to see console apps that
are command-line-only tools with a dock spot.

A side question: if ALLEGRO_USE_CONSOLE is defined, would the program
still be able to open a window for graphical output?  I know that the
two sound completely contradictory, but I had to ask all the same.  I'm
currently attempting to write a set of tools for converting png files
to my own proprietary sprite set format, and if the '-p' option is
specified on the tool's command line, I'd like to be able to open a
window and display the sprites.

Maybe what's needed is to only register with the dock when the "video
mode" is set?  I don't know how all this stuff works; Objective-C seems
like a wonderful upgrade to C++ to me, but it's waaaaay above my head.
^_^;;

> Great. What kind of joystick do you have? I'm particularly interested
> in knowing how the axis are reported on secondary sticks... 

I got one of those Macally iShock2 gamepads.  It has one digital pad
and two analog sticks, plus something like *11* buttons.  The sticks
also click, and I don't know if that registers as a button press or
not.  Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to put it through its paces
with Allegro, but for now it works pretty damned well with MAME. :)

- Charles