A few people have been wondering about tablet support for MyPaint on the Mac, and if it even works. The short answer is yes, it can, but you have to use XQuartz/X11. <rant>
The thing is, XQuartz/X11 isn’t as bad as some people (read as: me) would like you to believe. Really, it’s not. The thing is, complete Mac integration is not and never was in the scope of the project. The idea is to have a functional X.Org server that doesn’t crash, and can handle most of what you throw at it. And it performs marvelously. Until you try to involve users who don’t understand what XQuartz/X11 is.
For example, take me, 3 years ago. I was just learning about Blender, and the gems of open-source software. At that time I found Gimp, an amazing piece of graphics software. The problem was, I had to install X11, as well. Not only that, but X11 had to be running while I was using Gimp! What was this blasphemy, I said to myself. As it turned out, Gimp required X11 because gtk (its graphic toolkit) could not run natively (using system calls, not native cocoa) on Mac OSX. The problem behind this was that it simply didn’t feel like a native Mac application. Windows arranged themselves into obscure places, got lost behind others, and clicking-through wasn’t an option at the time. Even though XQuartz/X11 has gotten better over the years, it still doesn’t quite feel like a native Mac application.
Hence the need for Gtk+Quartz. Recently, there have been quite a few commits to the latest version of Gtk on Mac, signaling an increased interest from developers. The problem is, Gtk+Quartz HAS NO TABLET SUPPORT. In fact, there is NO multi-input device code _anywhere_. This means, that while other applications are getting better support on Mac (see gedit and Banshee), graphics applications which rely hugely on input support from tablets are being left out. That is not to say that the developers are refusing to add tablet support, it’s just that current drawing programs (like MyPaint and Gimp) don’t have support _yet_.
Here’s an interesting note, while writing this, I decided to check and see if there was a new update for gedit. It had recently been upgraded to gtk3, and there wasn’t a Mac application available yet. Turns out someone had created a Mac app just a few days ago, with gtk3 support and everything!
Now let’s try to get back on track. Gtk+Quartz currently doesn’t support tablets, while XQuartz/X11 does. It pretty much comes down to personal preference. Would you prefer something with more functionality and (warning, bias imminent) less usability/integration, or something with less functionality, but more usability/integration?
</rant>
