Open Radar

 
Summary:
I can't find any supported way to get the localized name of a NSScreen.  Many apps need to display a list (e.g. popup menu) of available screens, to display different content on different screens.  We need a supported way to do this.

Prior to 10.9, there was an approach using IODisplayCreateInfoDictionary(), but that has been deprecated.  See below for a NSScreen category I've written to use it.  We need an approach that is supported on 10.9.

I would suggest adding a name or localizedName property to NSScreen as the ideal solution.


@implementation NSScreen (Dejal)

/**
 Read-only property to return the unique ID of the screen, aka the screen number.  Not the same as the screen list index.
 
 @returns The reciever's unique display ID.
 
 @author DJS 2014-01.
 */

- (NSUInteger)displayID;
{
    NSDictionary *screenDictionary = [self deviceDescription];
    NSNumber *screenID = [screenDictionary objectForKey:@"NSScreenNumber"];
    
    return [screenID unsignedIntegerValue];
}

/**
 Read-only property to return the localized name of the receiver.
 
 @returns The localized name of the screen, or nil if none is available.
 
 @author DJS 2014-01.
 */

- (NSString *)screenName;
{
    return [self screenNameForDisplayID:self.displayID];
}

/**
 Given a display ID, returns the localized screen name, or nil if none is available.
 
 @param displayID The unique ID of the screen, as returned by the displayID property.
 @returns The localized name of the screen, or nil if none is available.
 
 @author DJS 2014-01.
 */

// IODisplayCreateInfoDictionary() is deprecated as of 10.9; suppress the warning for this method, since there's no alternative:
#pragma clang diagnostic ignored "-Wdeprecated-declarations"

- (NSString *)screenNameForDisplayID:(NSUInteger)displayID;
{
    NSDictionary *deviceInfo = (NSDictionary *)CFBridgingRelease(IODisplayCreateInfoDictionary(CGDisplayIOServicePort((CGDirectDisplayID)displayID), kIODisplayOnlyPreferredName));
    NSDictionary *localizedNames = [deviceInfo objectForKey:[NSString stringWithUTF8String:kDisplayProductName]];
    
    return [[localizedNames allValues] firstObject];
}

// Restore deprecation warnings:
#pragma clang diagnostic warning "-Wdeprecated-declarations"

@end

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Try calling IODisplayCreateInfoDictionary().
2. Get deprecation warning.
3. Search for alternative.
4. Fail.
5. File bug report.


Expected Results:
It works without a warning, or there's some alternative.

Actual Results:
I can't find any alternative to using a deprecated function.  I am sad.

Version:
OS X 10.9.