PDFKit's PDFOutline creates fundamentally flawed PDF syntax when it creates outlines ("Bookmarks") in a PDF document. A PDF document is created with three outlines: "Page 1", "Page 2" and "Page 3". Each is a child of the former, so "Page 3" is a child of "Page 2", and "Page 2" is a child of "Page 1". PDFKit produces flawed PDF syntax, with duplicate entries for each bookmark, missing sibling links, and a convoluted Parent > Child relationship. 3 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Parent 45 0 R /Count 8 /Kids [ 2 0 R 6 0 R 9 0 R 12 0 R 15 0 R 18 0 R 21 0 R 24 0 R ] >> endobj 28 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Parent 45 0 R /Count 3 /Kids [ 27 0 R 31 0 R 34 0 R ] >> endobj 45 0 obj << /Type /Pages /MediaBox [0 0 612 792] /Count 11 /Kids [ 3 0 R 28 0 R ] >> endobj 46 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Outlines 1 0 R /Pages 45 0 R >> endobj 1 0 obj << /First 47 0 R /Last 48 0 R >> endobj 48 0 obj << /Last 49 0 R /Count -1 /First 50 0 R /Title (Page 1) /Dest [ 2 0 R /XYZ 0 841.88 null ] /Parent 51 0 R >> endobj 51 0 obj << >> endobj 50 0 obj << /Last 52 0 R /Count -1 /First 53 0 R /Title (Page 2) /Dest [ 6 0 R /XYZ 0 841.88 null ] /Parent 51 0 R >> endobj 53 0 obj << /Dest [ 9 0 R /XYZ 0 841.88 null ] /Count 0 /Title (Page 3) /Parent 51 0 R >> endobj 52 0 obj << /Dest [ 9 0 R /XYZ 0 841.88 null ] /Count 0 /Title (Page 3) /Parent 51 0 R >> endobj 49 0 obj << /Last 52 0 R /Count -1 /First 53 0 R /Title (Page 2) /Dest [ 6 0 R /XYZ 0 841.88 null ] /Parent 51 0 R >> endobj 47 0 obj << /Last 49 0 R /Count -1 /First 50 0 R /Title (Page 1) /Dest [ 2 0 R /XYZ 0 841.88 null ] /Parent 51 0 R >> endobj(The Parent of all the outline objects is given as object 51, which is blank. The First/Last objects don't link correctly to the expected hierarchy, etc, etc.) Acrobat preflight will flag this as a syntax error, though the bookmarks do largely function in most viewers. Preview doesn't show the top-level outline, though that might relate to FB4013726, filed in 2018. I have shown the created syntax to ChatGPT, which also confirmed that the syntax does not conform to the expected PDF spec: This isn’t simply a matter of PDFKit choosing an unnecessarily elaborate but valid representation. There are genuine structural problems: The top-level Page 1 object’s /Parent does not point to the /Outlines dictionary. The child objects’ /Parent does not point to their actual containing outline. There are duplicate outline objects for Page 1, Page 2 and Page 3. The required sibling Prev/Next chains are absent. The /First//Last relationships don’t correspond cleanly to the claimed hierarchy. The errors are entirely reproducible in any PDFOutlines created by PDFKit. I have filed this as FB25328043. ... and in 2021 as FB8960602. ... and in 2019 as FB5313583.

I've written an PDF viewing app, and there seems to be a correlation between files opened by the app and files that Time Machine says couldn't be backed up. The files can still "not be backed up", even after the app has closed them. Is there anything I specifically need to do to sever the link between the file and the app?

Now that Apple has apparently removed the web interface from CUPS from MacOS27 (though there's no mention of it in the Release Notes); what is the sanctioned method of configuring print queues and setting their defaults? Have we got to use lpadmin and lpoptions? #progress

I'm a font developer. In the development process, I will revise a font and overwrite the OTF file that is currently enabled (registered) with macOS. If I then launch an app, it will immediately use the revised version of the font; while apps that are already loaded will continue to use the old version. This suggests that each app is loading new and separate font data, rather than getting it from some existing cache in memory. Yet macOS does have a "font cache" of some sort. Some apps, like TextEdit, seem to only load the fonts that they need to use. However, other apps, like Pages, load every enabled (registered) font on the OS!! (According to the Open Files list in Activity Monitor.) Given that /System/Library/Fonts/ is 625 Mb, and we can't disable any of it, isn't that a lot of data to be repeating? How many fonts is too many fonts? I can't find much documentation about the process.

I've signed an app, zipped it, and uploaded it to github. When I download it on another Mac, I get "it can't be opened because it could not be verified for malware". But on that computer, I can verify it with codesign, and it appears to be correct (as far as I can tell). I can copy/paste the app from my other Mac, and that copy will run without problem. sys_policy, however, gives: Notary Ticket Missing File: ReView.app Severity: Fatal Full Error: A Notarization ticket is not stapled to this application. Type: Distribution Error This is the same for the copy that runs, and the copy that doesn't. The difference between them appears to be a quarantine xattr. I can delete this, and the app launches without incident. Is this expected? Why should a signed app be quarantined just because it's been downloaded? The whole point of paying the fee is to avoid the security obstacles...! ;-)

I have a MacOS app which displays PDFs, and I want to create a New document from the Clipboard, if the clipboard contains valid graphical data. My problem is that even if it doesn't, I still get a blank new document window. AppKit always creates a new document. I've tried overriding the newDocument function; I've tried avoiding the built-in functions altogether. Are there any general recommendations for going about this?

My app has a menu called "Document". On Tahoe, this appears as a lightbulb icon. Is this deliberate? Is it possible to stop this? Or do I just have to use a different name if I want people to read words?

In PDFKit on MacOS, if you create a PDFView and matching Thumbnail View, and then set the PDFView to Horizontal: selecting the thumbnail no longer move the PDFView to the correct page. It works for all styles of View (Two Page Continuous, etc) in Vertical orientation.

I've created a font family, but Font Book refuses to include it in the English language set, despite my best efforts. The font has every glyph in the OpenType "Std" set, plus several others. I've checked various boxes for Latin 1 and Macintosh Character Codepages; plus Unicode ranges for Basic Latin, additional Latin, etc, etc. I've compared it to several other fonts that are in the English set, and I can't see anything that they have that my fonts don't. (In fact, many of them seem to have much less!) I've created other fonts that are in the English set, but I've no idea what the difference is. Given that macOS relies on these Language sets, in order to hide the thousands of unnecessary fonts that are permanently installed in the OS, there ought to be some guidance on how to do this.

I have a MacOS app with a memory leak. According to the Leaks.app, there's a problem with NSIdleTimer's setHandler method. I'm not using that object (which I can't find any documentation on). But I am using: sleep(1) as a means of preventing a race condition. Might that be the cause? Anything I need to do with sleep to deallocate memory? Or is it an OS bug?

I see that pstopdf and the PSNormalizer framework have been removed from Sonoma. A sad day, given the importance of PostScript in making the Mac a success.

I'm trying to create a custom Quick Look preview on macOS. I've found the Quick Look Preview Extension target, which is brilliant, and does most of the 'heavy' lifting, but I've run into a few problems. I'm implementing a preview for MIDI files (which has been missing since 2009...) using AVMIDIPlayer. The player keeps playing when the file is no longer selected! What's the mechanism for fixing that? Some sort of check that the view exists..? I notice that the OS preview for audio files has a different interface for the Finder's preview column and for the QuickLook 'pop-up' window. Again, I can't see how you define different views for those two environments. Is there any documentation that's specifically "Mac"? I can only find iOS stuff. (Same for third-party tutorials.)

I'm trying to create a Command Line Tool that uses the ArgumentParser swift package. I've added the package to my project, and initially I got a lot of errors: Library not loaded (code signature in PackageFrameworks/ArgumentParser.framework/Versions/A/ArgumentParser' not valid for use in process: (no such file, not in dyld cache) I fixed it by disabling Library Validation in the Build Options, and my tool runs in Xcode beautifully. But the compiled executable won't work in Terminal, flagging the same errors. I presume it's some signing/security thing (as usual), and I just need to set the right Build Options, but I haven't a clue which ones. I tried "Always Embed Swift Libraries", but that produced a warning message: the product type 'com.apple.product-type.tool' is not a wrapper type. Anyone know what might be going on?

Since Big Sur, the printtool process has been sandboxed, with the result that it's now so secure, it can't do anything. As a consequence, PDF Services (items in ~/Library/PDF Services) no longer work. An alias to a folder outside the user domain, such as /Users/Shared/, no longer saves the PDF file to that location. Shell scripts, python, and even compiled Swift binaries no long run. Even Automator Print plug-ins no longer function. Adding printtool to Full Disk Access doesn't work either. ("If in doubt, add the process to Full Disk Access.") The ability to process PDFs directly from the print dialog goes back to Tiger (I think) and has been massively useful for years. Yes, I suppose some malware could save a script to the user PDF Services folder, and then some unwitting user could run it from the print dialog, but.... At the very least, some new documentation about how PDF Services are now supposed to work would be crucial.

I've added a new target to my macOS project -- a quicklook preview extension. Now, when I try to build the project, I get a dialog saying "Select App to Run". QuickLook Simulator launches, but my app doesn't build -- by which I mean it doesn't attempt to build. What do I have to do to build the whole thing?