[vlc-devel] Cocoa/Objective-C interface for VLC?

[Andre-John Mas]

On 17-May-2009, at 10:28, Felix Paul Kühne wrote:

> Hello Andre-John,
>
> let me get a few things straight here:
>
> VLC's current OS X interface is entirely (except for the fades of  
> the playlist and the preferences windows) created with Interface  
> Builder and is completely driven by about 20 Obj-C files with  
> various classes. This interface module directly interacts with VLC's  
> internal C interface, which reduces overhead, enables all available  
> features and information directly, but obviously requires a broader  
> knowledge about VLC's C API.
>
> Additionally, there is something we call VLCKit: a Obj-C wrapper for  
> libvlc's external interface. It includes basic classes for  
> playlists, streaming and transcoding. However, this is only a  
> limited set. Doing simple media players (comparable to MPlayer OS X  
> or QuickTime Player) is as hard as doing a QuickTime-based one;  
> thus, it is really easy. However, you'll lack most of the cool  
> things such as running multiple interfaces within one instance  
> (remember that hotkeys is an interface, too). Still, you get da  
> überfeature: playing multiple streams within one instance of VLC  
> side by side.
>
>
> Anyway, my point is that reworking the current OS X interface is a  
> lot easier than rewriting it from scratch just to provide another  
> main window. The Dudiak-interface is a nice approach in the correct  
> direction, but still subject of being merged. In case tonydelalande  
> or another guy wants to start working on a nice OS X interface, s/he  
> would be absolutely welcome to do so. However, this isn't any easier  
> by using VLCKit. VLC's C interface to interface modules is pretty  
> easy to understand to anyone knowing C. So, if you're writing Obj-C,  
> you'll understand it. and of course, we, the inactive OS X guys can  
> always give tips here and there. Hooking up VLC's current cocoa  
> classes is easy and exactly the way we already do.
>
>
> In case that I got your message completely wrong, please says so. If  
> not, I hope this helps a bit.


Thanks for the information. I wasn't aware of this.

I had made by comment based on not seeing any nibs for describing the  
UI. Actually I saw one (MainMenu.nib),
but could not open it with 'Interface Builder'. I suppose I made an  
assumption without doing much research.

Has anyone put any documentation together on VLCKit?

André-John