> But it's a far cry from being a Windows 95 UI with an aqua skin
Ah, but that's the problem, macOS UI isn't skin deep. Behind the looks, there are behaviours like:
- supporting the system-wide default Cocoa menus and menu-modifying behaviours like changing the shortcuts via System Settings rather than some in-app settings window
- support the Services menu in every single right-click menu, the one that's populated by AppleScripts, Automator services, and Shortcuts provided by the system, installed apps, and the user
- heck, even without the Services menu, supporting system-wide speech, spell-checking, and translation built into every native Cocoa text field
- for those of us who like it, Siri AI suggestions in text fields
- supporting macOS' accessibility settings like Dynamic Type, Large Type, proper support for VoiceOver in all widgets, etc. which come automatically to Cocoa widgets but require extra effort that's never really seen in Qt apps on the Mac
- supporting transitioning between light and dark mode when the system setting changes and not leaving random artefacts behind after the change
There's way more than just these examples but this is the point: looking like macOS isn't enough. It's feeling like macOS that's the trick and Qt apps always stand out as just a little foreign.
So people who make apps with Qt don't design for the Mac interface because it's far too much hassle to build all of that stuff in, if they even know that they have to.
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I'm not convinced by a comparison with the Pro apps, either. Those, on both sides, are custom-designed UI. Yes, Apple's Pro apps use the system toolkit but they aren't your typical Mac app; anything that looks like them has to go out of its way to look like them. It's not like Qt gives "Pro app" look for free.
(And even if it did, that still doesn't mean the app would get all those behaviours I talked about before)
But even in the first image of the Musescore interface, I spot something foreign to Mac: a toolbar with a drag handle. Mac apps don't have that. Mac apps have NSToolbar, where the items are customisable in a standard way that every app adopts.
Ah, but that's the problem, macOS UI isn't skin deep. Behind the looks, there are behaviours like:
- supporting the system-wide default Cocoa menus and menu-modifying behaviours like changing the shortcuts via System Settings rather than some in-app settings window
- support the Services menu in every single right-click menu, the one that's populated by AppleScripts, Automator services, and Shortcuts provided by the system, installed apps, and the user
- heck, even without the Services menu, supporting system-wide speech, spell-checking, and translation built into every native Cocoa text field
- for those of us who like it, Siri AI suggestions in text fields
- supporting macOS' accessibility settings like Dynamic Type, Large Type, proper support for VoiceOver in all widgets, etc. which come automatically to Cocoa widgets but require extra effort that's never really seen in Qt apps on the Mac
- supporting transitioning between light and dark mode when the system setting changes and not leaving random artefacts behind after the change
There's way more than just these examples but this is the point: looking like macOS isn't enough. It's feeling like macOS that's the trick and Qt apps always stand out as just a little foreign.
So people who make apps with Qt don't design for the Mac interface because it's far too much hassle to build all of that stuff in, if they even know that they have to.
——————————
I'm not convinced by a comparison with the Pro apps, either. Those, on both sides, are custom-designed UI. Yes, Apple's Pro apps use the system toolkit but they aren't your typical Mac app; anything that looks like them has to go out of its way to look like them. It's not like Qt gives "Pro app" look for free.
(And even if it did, that still doesn't mean the app would get all those behaviours I talked about before)
But even in the first image of the Musescore interface, I spot something foreign to Mac: a toolbar with a drag handle. Mac apps don't have that. Mac apps have NSToolbar, where the items are customisable in a standard way that every app adopts.