37.8. 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.

37.8.1. Carbon.AE — Apple Events

37.8.2. Carbon.AH — Apple Help

37.8.3. Carbon.App — Appearance Manager

37.8.4. Carbon.Appearance — Appearance Manager constants

37.8.5. Carbon.CF — Core Foundation

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

37.8.6. Carbon.CG — Core Graphics

37.8.7. Carbon.CarbonEvt — Carbon Event Manager

37.8.8. Carbon.CarbonEvents — Carbon Event Manager constants

37.8.9. Carbon.Cm — Component Manager

37.8.10. Carbon.Components — Component Manager constants

37.8.11. Carbon.ControlAccessor — Control Manager accssors

37.8.12. Carbon.Controls — Control Manager constants

37.8.13. Carbon.CoreFounation — CoreFounation constants

37.8.14. Carbon.CoreGraphics — CoreGraphics constants

37.8.15. Carbon.Ctl — Control Manager

37.8.16. Carbon.Dialogs — Dialog Manager constants

37.8.17. Carbon.Dlg — Dialog Manager

37.8.18. Carbon.Drag — Drag and Drop Manager

37.8.19. Carbon.Dragconst — Drag and Drop Manager constants

37.8.20. Carbon.Events — Event Manager constants

37.8.21. Carbon.Evt — Event Manager

37.8.22. Carbon.File — File Manager

37.8.23. Carbon.Files — File Manager constants

37.8.24. Carbon.Fm — Font Manager

37.8.25. Carbon.Folder — Folder Manager

37.8.26. Carbon.Folders — Folder Manager constants

37.8.27. Carbon.Fonts — Font Manager constants

37.8.28. Carbon.Help — Help Manager

37.8.29. Carbon.IBCarbon — Carbon InterfaceBuilder

37.8.30. Carbon.IBCarbonRuntime — Carbon InterfaceBuilder constants

37.8.31. Carbon.Icn — Carbon Icon Manager

37.8.32. Carbon.Icons — Carbon Icon Manager constants

37.8.33. Carbon.Launch — Carbon Launch Services

37.8.34. Carbon.LaunchServices — Carbon Launch Services constants

37.8.35. Carbon.List — List Manager

37.8.36. Carbon.Lists — List Manager constants

37.8.37. Carbon.MacHelp — Help Manager constants

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

37.8.39. Carbon.Menu — Menu Manager

37.8.40. Carbon.Menus — Menu Manager constants

37.8.41. Carbon.Mlte — MultiLingual Text Editor

37.8.42. Carbon.OSA — Carbon OSA Interface

37.8.43. Carbon.OSAconst — Carbon OSA Interface constants

37.8.44. Carbon.QDOffscreen — QuickDraw Offscreen constants

37.8.45. Carbon.Qd — QuickDraw

37.8.46. Carbon.Qdoffs — QuickDraw Offscreen

37.8.47. Carbon.Qt — QuickTime

37.8.48. Carbon.QuickDraw — QuickDraw constants

37.8.49. Carbon.QuickTime — QuickTime constants

37.8.50. Carbon.Res — Resource Manager and Handles

37.8.51. Carbon.Resources — Resource Manager and Handles constants

37.8.52. 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.

37.8.53. Carbon.Snd — Sound Manager

37.8.54. Carbon.Sound — Sound Manager constants

37.8.55. Carbon.TE — TextEdit

37.8.56. Carbon.TextEdit — TextEdit constants

37.8.57. Carbon.Win — Window Manager

37.8.58. Carbon.Windows — Window Manager constants