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.

1. Carbon.AE — Apple Events

2. Carbon.AH — Apple Help

3. Carbon.App — Appearance Manager

4. Carbon.Appearance — Appearance Manager constants

5. Carbon.CF — Core Foundation

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

6. Carbon.CG — Core Graphics

7. Carbon.CarbonEvt — Carbon Event Manager

8. Carbon.CarbonEvents — Carbon Event Manager constants

9. Carbon.Cm — Component Manager

10. Carbon.Components — Component Manager constants

11. Carbon.ControlAccessor — Control Manager accssors

12. Carbon.Controls — Control Manager constants

13. Carbon.CoreFounation — CoreFounation constants

14. Carbon.CoreGraphics — CoreGraphics constants

15. Carbon.Ctl — Control Manager

16. Carbon.Dialogs — Dialog Manager constants

17. Carbon.Dlg — Dialog Manager

18. Carbon.Drag — Drag and Drop Manager

19. Carbon.Dragconst — Drag and Drop Manager constants

20. Carbon.Events — Event Manager constants

21. Carbon.Evt — Event Manager

22. Carbon.File — File Manager

23. Carbon.Files — File Manager constants

24. Carbon.Fm — Font Manager

25. Carbon.Folder — Folder Manager

26. Carbon.Folders — Folder Manager constants

27. Carbon.Fonts — Font Manager constants

28. Carbon.Help — Help Manager

29. Carbon.IBCarbon — Carbon InterfaceBuilder

30. Carbon.IBCarbonRuntime — Carbon InterfaceBuilder constants

31. `Carbon.Icn` — Carbon Icon Manager

32. Carbon.Icons — Carbon Icon Manager constants

33. Carbon.Launch — Carbon Launch Services

34. Carbon.LaunchServices — Carbon Launch Services constants

35. Carbon.List — List Manager

36. Carbon.Lists — List Manager constants

37. Carbon.MacHelp — Help Manager constants

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

41. Carbon.Mlte — MultiLingual Text Editor

42. Carbon.OSA — Carbon OSA Interface

43. Carbon.OSAconst — Carbon OSA Interface constants

44. Carbon.QDOffscreen — QuickDraw Offscreen constants

45. Carbon.Qd — QuickDraw

46. Carbon.Qdoffs — QuickDraw Offscreen

47. Carbon.Qt — QuickTime

48. Carbon.QuickDraw — QuickDraw constants

49. Carbon.QuickTime — QuickTime constants

50. Carbon.Res — Resource Manager and Handles

51. Carbon.Resources — Resource Manager and Handles constants

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.