Mac OS X Carbon: What is the difference between SelectWindow vs. ActivateWindow and what are the Cocoa equivalents

Question

The title basically sums up my question. I'd like to know what the difference between the Mac Carbon SelectWindow and ActivateWindow(..., TRUE) is. I've found these in old source and wonder if they are interchangeable (or what their Cocoa equivalents might be).

Answer 1

From memory...

SelectWindow was the response to clicking on a window. It brought the window to the front, activated it, and (usually) made it the first responder. (I'm using Cocoa terminology here.) It's sort of like OrderFront

The SelectWindow function removes highlighting from the previously active window, brings the specified window to the front, highlights it, and generates the activate events to deactivate the previously active window and activate the specified window. If the specified window is already active, SelectWindow has no effect. Call SelectWindow when the user presses the mouse button while the cursor is in the content region of an inactive window.

Activate Window updated the window frame to indicate that the window was the first responder.

Answer 2

You don't really need to know a Cocoa equivalent, you just need to identify what you want to do. Many things from Carbon that required you to implement them are done for you by AppKit. Other paradigms of Carbon APIs just do not happen in Cocoa. They look similar, and had many similar hooks to common OS things, but they're very very different.