[Mono-osx] [MonoMac] CGAffineTransform question

[Miguel de Icaza]

> Is there any reason for the naming convention used in the
> CGAffineTransform structure?  When I went for the matrix expecting a tx
> and ty (as well as a, b, c, d) had to look up which one was which.
> Maybe adding convenience properties would help in this situation.

I am not aware of any standard naming for 2D affine transform components.

Some systems use xx, yx, xy, yy, x0, y0 (like Cairo), others m11, m12,
m21, m22, x0 and y0 (Silverlight), Flash calls its properties a, b, c,
d, tx, ty and libart and other C libraries use a float[6] array, where
you get to set all values yourself.

Since this s a matrix, the naming mXX as well as the xy/xx tell you
which element of the matrix they reference, while the letters a, b, c,
d require you to remember where those go.

> Even in the following methods they are referred to as tx and ty
>
>         public void Translate (float tx, float ty)
>         {
>             Multiply (MakeTranslation (tx, ty));
>         }

The above are parameters to multiply the matrix, that is why you see
tx, ty ("Translate X by..") and why in Scale you will see sx and sy
("Scale X by..").   Those are not directly stored in the properties,
that would be incorrect, they have to be multiplied, as you showed
above.

> That would also coincide with the documentation.

But we are not exposing that C method, we are exposing a C#
constructor that does not even call C.

The solution to the problem is to contribute complete docs for the
convention that we have adopted.

Miguel