36.8. Mac OS Toolbox Modules

These are a set of modules that provide interfaces to various legacy Mac OS toolboxes. If applicable the module will define a number of Python objects for the various structures declared by the toolbox, and operations will be implemented as methods of the object. Other operations will be implemented as functions in the module. Not all operations possible in C will also be possible in Python (callbacks are often a problem), and parameters will occasionally be different in Python (input and output buffers, especially). All methods and functions have a __doc__ string describing their arguments and return values, and for additional description you are referred to Inside Macintosh or similar works.

These modules all live in a package called Carbon. Despite that name they are not all part of the Carbon framework: CF is really in the CoreFoundation framework and Qt is in the QuickTime framework. The normal use pattern is

from Carbon import AE

Note

Most of the OS X APIs that these modules use are deprecated or removed in recent versions of OS X. Many are not available when Python is executing in 64-bit mode. The Carbon modules have been removed in Python 3. You should avoid using them in Python 2.

36.8.1. Carbon.AE — Apple Events

36.8.2. Carbon.AH — Apple Help

36.8.3. Carbon.App — Appearance Manager

36.8.4. Carbon.Appearance — Appearance Manager constants

36.8.5. Carbon.CF — Core Foundation

The CFBase, CFArray, CFData, CFDictionary, CFString and CFURL objects are supported, some only partially.

36.8.6. Carbon.CG — Core Graphics

36.8.7. Carbon.CarbonEvt — Carbon Event Manager

36.8.8. Carbon.CarbonEvents — Carbon Event Manager constants

36.8.9. Carbon.Cm — Component Manager

36.8.10. Carbon.Components — Component Manager constants

36.8.11. Carbon.ControlAccessor — Control Manager accssors

36.8.12. Carbon.Controls — Control Manager constants

36.8.13. Carbon.CoreFounation — CoreFounation constants

36.8.14. Carbon.CoreGraphics — CoreGraphics constants

36.8.15. Carbon.Ctl — Control Manager

36.8.16. Carbon.Dialogs — Dialog Manager constants

36.8.17. Carbon.Dlg — Dialog Manager

36.8.18. Carbon.Drag — Drag and Drop Manager

36.8.19. Carbon.Dragconst — Drag and Drop Manager constants

36.8.20. Carbon.Events — Event Manager constants

36.8.21. Carbon.Evt — Event Manager

36.8.22. Carbon.File — File Manager

36.8.23. Carbon.Files — File Manager constants

36.8.24. Carbon.Fm — Font Manager

36.8.25. Carbon.Folder — Folder Manager

36.8.26. Carbon.Folders — Folder Manager constants

36.8.27. Carbon.Fonts — Font Manager constants

36.8.28. Carbon.Help — Help Manager

36.8.29. Carbon.IBCarbon — Carbon InterfaceBuilder

36.8.30. Carbon.IBCarbonRuntime — Carbon InterfaceBuilder constants

36.8.31. Carbon.Icn — Carbon Icon Manager

36.8.32. Carbon.Icons — Carbon Icon Manager constants

36.8.33. Carbon.Launch — Carbon Launch Services

36.8.34. Carbon.LaunchServices — Carbon Launch Services constants

36.8.35. Carbon.List — List Manager

36.8.36. Carbon.Lists — List Manager constants

36.8.37. Carbon.MacHelp — Help Manager constants

36.8.38. Carbon.MediaDescr — Parsers and generators for Quicktime Media descriptors

36.8.39. Carbon.Menu — Menu Manager

36.8.40. Carbon.Menus — Menu Manager constants

36.8.41. Carbon.Mlte — MultiLingual Text Editor

36.8.42. Carbon.OSA — Carbon OSA Interface

36.8.43. Carbon.OSAconst — Carbon OSA Interface constants

36.8.44. Carbon.QDOffscreen — QuickDraw Offscreen constants

36.8.45. Carbon.Qd — QuickDraw

36.8.46. Carbon.Qdoffs — QuickDraw Offscreen

36.8.47. Carbon.Qt — QuickTime

36.8.48. Carbon.QuickDraw — QuickDraw constants

36.8.49. Carbon.QuickTime — QuickTime constants

36.8.50. Carbon.Res — Resource Manager and Handles

36.8.51. Carbon.Resources — Resource Manager and Handles constants

36.8.52. Carbon.Scrap — Scrap Manager

This module is only fully available on Mac OS 9 and earlier under classic PPC MacPython. Very limited functionality is available under Carbon MacPython.

The Scrap Manager supports the simplest form of cut & paste operations on the Macintosh. It can be use for both inter- and intra-application clipboard operations.

The Scrap module provides low-level access to the functions of the Scrap Manager. It contains the following functions:

Carbon.Scrap.InfoScrap()

Return current information about the scrap. The information is encoded as a tuple containing the fields (size, handle, count, state, path).

Field Meaning
size Size of the scrap in bytes.
handle Resource object representing the scrap.
count Serial number of the scrap contents.
state Integer; positive if in memory, 0 if on disk, negative if uninitialized.
path Filename of the scrap when stored on disk.

See also

Scrap Manager
Apple’s documentation for the Scrap Manager gives a lot of useful information about using the Scrap Manager in applications.

36.8.53. Carbon.Snd — Sound Manager

36.8.54. Carbon.Sound — Sound Manager constants

36.8.55. Carbon.TE — TextEdit

36.8.56. Carbon.TextEdit — TextEdit constants

36.8.57. Carbon.Win — Window Manager

36.8.58. Carbon.Windows — Window Manager constants

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