Re: Change a NSMenu's shape?

FROM : Peter Maurer
DATE : Mon Nov 12 23:15:36 2007

Hey Peter and Ken,

thanks for taking the time to respond.

> Can you use -[NSStatusItem setMenu:]?  If not, could you please file a
> bug describing why?


Unfortunately, I can't. These are status items that also serve as drag 
& drop targets and one-click action triggers, depending on their 
context. In fact, my application's needs are so special that even this 
strategy ...

> You may use -[NSStatusItem popUpStatusItemMenu:] to pop up an 
> arbitrary menu with the correct appearance for a main menu (the 
> sharp top corners).


... doesn't really work out, because this application pops up its 
NSStatusItem menus via PopUpMenuSelect() after getting their MenRefs 
by means of the undocumented _NSGetCarbonMenu() function. So filing a 
bug is kind of pointless, I guess. And I know that every time I use 
undocumented calls a little kitten dies, but it was the only way to 
achieve certain things (e.g., populate NSMenus while traversing them 
in order to browse your file system from a NSStatusItem) back in the 
Mac OS X 10.2 days.

Right now, I am actually rewriting these parts of my application to 
use -[NSStatusItem popUpStatusItemMenu:] in a new version that won't 
have to support 10.2 anymore; but that will take some more time, and 
in the mean time, I had hoped there would be a quick and dirty way to 
fix this cosmetic issues for Leopard users. However, if there isn't, I 
can live with that, too. Turns out it doesn't look quite as ridiculous 
if I simply move my menus 4 units to the left when running on Leopard.

BTW: I've always fantasized about being able to use the proper Dock 
context menu style (the one that "points" to a Dock icon), instead of 
having to ape it. But since we can't even change the corners' 
appearance, I guess that's out of the question completely. ;-)

Thanks again!

Peter.