AppKit support for 64 bit build

[sbaer]

I've started working on a MonoMac build that runs in a 64 bit process. Here are the AppKit modifications. Please let me know if you would like this written a different way and I'll be happy to change.

[migueldeicaza]

Thanks for the patch.

The problem in general with 64 bit support is that we have not settled on a strategy. We have a few options on the table, and we are investigating the best course of action.

Among the choices that we are debating:

• Should we try to keep MonoMac and MonoMac.64 source code compatible?
• To what extent we want to do that
• Should we modify the Mono runtime to alias the types

But most importantly, how do we maintain this, because I am not a fan of the #ifdefs. There might not be many options, but I am not a fan of it.

[sbaer]

Yep, I hear ya and completely understand the tough situation you guys are facing with respect to this. Having two different build flavors of MonoMac that are not compatible sucks. That's why I commented that I'm willing to rewrite this using a different approach if you had come to some sort of strategy with respect to 64bit.

Our situation is that we are only going to be running Mac Rhino in 64 bit mode and therefore absolutely have to come up with some sort of solution with respect to accessing the native APIs under mono for our plug-in framework (better to at least start doing something instead of nothing at all). I'll keep plugging away using my current approach for a 64 bit SDK, but if you have a revelation in how you want to handle the different sized types let me know and I can help.

[sbaer]

Also note that I made a similar pull request in the maccore project so you may want to block it from getting merged before someone else lets it go by. In that case at least I was able to keep the public interface in CoreGraphics compatible by forcing the double precision values to floats.

[migueldeicaza]

Nice to see you guys in the Mono world! I lost track of your efforts after you guys were doing that lightweight Winforms API.

When do you guys need the 64 API by?

[sbaer]

That's tough to say. We don't have hard deadlines on when projects need to be done. I just needed to start figuring out what was involved in supporting a 64 bit .NET SDK for our plug-in community so we don't sit around at meetings and throw our hands up in the air with an "I don't know" shoulder shrug.

We are at the point where we need to create a nice set of developer tools for people that want to write plug-ins for the Mac product. I've got a custom soft debugger working and am in the process of trying to figure out how to make project wizards in Xamarin Studio (which looks/works great by the way). I don't know how many plug-in developers we have on the Windows version, but I know there are at least several thousand people writing plug-ins and their skill levels range from beginner to absolute expert professional. That's completely irrelevant, but it just helps to show that we have a lot of people chomping at the bit to start OSX plug-in development.

I'll be at the Evolve conference in a month. I can give you a better idea of where we stand then.

[migueldeicaza]

I look forward to see you at Evolve!