For a while now, one of the bummers about Cairo is that you can't use it with VisualWorks on OS X with an Aqua/Cocoa/Quartz based VM. You have to use the X11 VM to use Cairo under OS X (or at least to draw on windows; you can always just draw on Pixmaps or use it to save .png files). There are a number of issues with the VM that keep the integration from working. Just when I'd get it drawing, I'd find that it hangs the VM when you close the window.

Those VM Boys in the Back Room though have been cooking up new VMs and they've made some changes that make this a lot easier. This VM is not part of the build yet, it has some user-interaction performance issues that need to be ironed out still, but those Helpful Guys were nice enough to help me build it on my machine so I could play with it.

I do hope they get this on to the main line soon, because I'm happy to report that it works. The new VM interface is far simpler/easier for me to interface with for Cairo. And the fact that it works is nice too. Of course, you can't talk about this stuff without doing eye candy. I was imagining some sort of cool progress widget where things fly around in circles, and the the message text "fills up" as it nears completion. With help from ExtraActivity, this was a snap and I threw together a SnazzyProgressView with an example. If the code is of interest, ping me, and I can send it to you. Here's the progress view in action with a tribute to John Sarkela, one of those VM Boys that made this possible: