Having trouble overriding the default "About ..." menu item and corresponding window on macOS Tahoe

[jbunds]

I have spent more time than I care to admit trying to override the default "About <application name>" window in my GoGPU application.

I have attempted many various approaches, but none have thus far allowed my application to render an "About ..." window with some basic text specified in the program. The various approaches I have tried include:

• examples/menu/main.go (specifically app.GetSystemMenu(gogpu.SystemMenuApplication) with a custom Action function, with and without Role: gogpu.RoleAbout)

• the approach outlined at https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/gogpu/gogpu#readme-macos-system-menu:

func main() {
  var app *gogpu.App
  
  app = gogpu.NewApp(gogpu.DefaultConfig().
    WithTitle("Foo").
    WithAppName("Foo").
    WithSize(800, 800))

  app.SetMenu(gogpu.NewMenu().
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "Custom About Window", Role: gogpu.RoleAbout}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "Quit Foo", Role: gogpu.RoleQuit}),
  )

• using the github.com/gogpu/ui/app, github.com/gogpu/ui/core/menu, and github.com/gogpu/ui/primitives packages:

  menuBar := menu.NewBar([]menu.TopMenu{
    menu.BarMenu("Foo",
      menu.Item("About Foo", "about", func() {
        showCustomAboutWindow(app) // various approaches herein, including aboutWin := app.NewWindow(...); aboutWin.SetOnDraw(...); alternatively myUIApp := uiApp.New(...); myUIApp.SetRoot(...); etc
      }),
      menu.Sep(),
      menu.Item("Quit", "⌘Q", func() {
        app.Close()
      }),
    ),
  })
  
  mainUIApp := uiApp.New(
    uiApp.WithWindowProvider(app),
    uiApp.WithPlatformProvider(app),
    uiApp.WithEventSource(app.EventSource()),
  )

  mainUIApp.SetRoot(menuBar) // or mainUIApp.SetRoot(primitives.Box(menuBar)), and a few other permutations

I would be grateful if somone more familiar with GoGPU's broad API than I am would kindly show me a simple and idiomatic way to create a custom "About ..." window with just some basic text, and nothing more than that.

[kolkov]

@jbunds — we investigated this across our enterprise references (winit, SDL3, Flutter, Wails v3).

Root Cause

When you set Role: gogpu.RoleAbout, addPlatformItem (platform_darwin.go:1654) delegates to AddMenuItemWithRole, which maps "about" to the system selector orderFrontStandardAboutPanel:. Your custom Action callback is never connected — the role handler returns early before reaching the callback path.

How enterprise frameworks handle this

Framework	About Menu	Custom About
winit	orderFrontStandardAboutPanel:	Not supported
SDL3	orderFrontStandardAboutPanel:	Not supported (has FIXME)
Flutter	orderFrontStandardAboutPanel: (XIB)	Not supported
Wails v3	NewAboutMenuItem() → ShowAbout()	Custom via NSAlert (CGO)

The system orderFrontStandardAboutPanel: shows the standard macOS About panel, which reads app name, version, copyright, and icon from Info.plist or can be customized via orderFrontStandardAboutPanelWithOptions: with an NSDictionary.

Workaround (works today)

Skip the role entirely. Use a plain menu item with Action:

app.SetMenu(gogpu.NewMenu().
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{
        Title: "About Foo",
        Action: func() {
            fmt.Println("Foo v1.0 — built with GoGPU")
        },
    }).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "Quit Foo", Role: gogpu.RoleQuit}),
)

This bypasses the role system and connects your callback directly via AddMenuItemWithCallback.

Proper fix (two options)

Option A: Support Role + Action together — if both are set, the custom Action overrides the system selector. This is the simplest fix (~5 LOC in addPlatformItem).

Option B: Add orderFrontStandardAboutPanelWithOptions: support — let users customize the standard About panel (app name, version, copyright, icon) without needing a custom window. This is the most macOS-native approach and doesn't require a custom window at all.

Update: Fixed in v0.49.1. If Action is set alongside Role, the custom Action now takes precedence over the system selector.

go get github.com/gogpu/gogpu@v0.49.1

Option B (orderFrontStandardAboutPanelWithOptions: for customizing the standard About panel) remains a future enhancement. Let us know if the workaround + fix work for your use case!

[jbunds]

I tried the both of the following (with and without specifying Role: gogpu.RoleAbout):

  aboutWin, _ := app.NewWindow(gogpu.DefaultConfig().
    WithTitle("About Foo").
    WithSize(aboutWidth, aboutHeight).
    WithResizable(false))

  aboutWin.Hide()
  
  app.SetMenu(gogpu.NewMenu().
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "About Foo", Action: func() { aboutWin.Show() }}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "Quit Foo", Role: gogpu.RoleQuit}))

  aboutWin, _ := app.NewWindow(gogpu.DefaultConfig().
    WithTitle("About Foo").
    WithSize(aboutWidth, aboutHeight).
    WithResizable(false))

  aboutWin.Hide()

  app.SetMenu(gogpu.NewMenu().
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "About Foo", Role: gogpu.RoleAbout, Action: func() { aboutWin.Show() }}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "Quit Foo", Role: gogpu.RoleQuit}))

where the above code blocks were executed via the app.OnSurfaceAvailable callback function definition, but neither worked.

When I say "neither worked", what I mean is that the menu bar is not affected at all, i.e., the default / native menu bar with all the default menu items is produced.

The only workaround that basically works is the following:

  aboutWin, _ := app.NewWindow(gogpu.DefaultConfig().
    WithTitle("About Foo").
    WithSize(aboutWidth, aboutHeight).
    WithResizable(false))

  aboutWin.Hide()
  
  appMenu := app.GetSystemMenu(gogpu.SystemMenuApplication)
  appMenu.AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true})
  appMenu.AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{
    Title:  "About Foo",
    //Role:   gogpu.RoleAbout, // causes my custom window to be effectively discarded
    Action: func() { aboutWin.Show() },
  })

Note that I have omitted the aboutWin.SetOnDraw(...) callback definition for brevity, but it works as intended.

[kolkov]

Thanks for the detailed reproduction — this helped us find the root cause.

There are actually three bugs here, not one:

1. SetMenu leaf items are invisible on macOS. applyMenu adds your items as bare NSMenuItems directly to the main menu bar. macOS only renders menu bar items that have submenus — bare items without submenus are silently invisible. That's why GetSystemMenu().AddItem() works (it adds to the existing App Menu submenu) but SetMenu doesn't.

2. Role + Action items are dropped. The role path in addPlatformItem requires item.Action == nil — if you set both Role: RoleAbout and Action, the role is skipped entirely. Ironically, AddToSystemMenu doesn't have this guard, so it works correctly there.

3. SetMenu vs SetCustomMenu inconsistency. SetCustomMenu correctly wraps items in a submenu (so they appear on macOS). SetMenu passes flat items — works on Windows, invisible on macOS.

Filed as gogpu#449. We'll fix all three — role items routed to the App Menu, Action override for roles, and proper submenu wrapping.

Your GetSystemMenu workaround is correct for now.

[jbunds]

As demonstrated by the examples/menu/main.go progream, SetMenu(...) appends to the native application menu rather than replace it, as the godoc states.

Also, the macOS-native info icon (circled lowercase i) is lost from the item when the Action field is specified.

In my testing with the latest release, all AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}) menu items are discarded.

And, FWIW, in my attempts to workaround the disappearing macOS info icon from a RoleAbout menu item, I discovered that both of these variants cause the menu item to be shifted rightward in a way i didn't expect, perhaps due to the Unicode code points exceeding one byte:

  Title:  " \u24D8  About Foo",
  Title:  "ⓘ About Foo",

That behavior differs from that exhibited by the app.GetSystemMenu(gogpu.SystemMenuApplication) workaround approach.

So I am able to use SetMenu(...) to add my menu item with custom callback, but the info icon is lost.

The following code results in the application menu shown in the image file attached below:

  app.SetMenu(gogpu.NewMenu().
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).                               // discarded
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "no callback", Role: gogpu.RoleAbout}).   // macOS gear icon rendered correctly when no "Action" field specified
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).                               // discarded
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Title: "ⓘ no callback", Role: gogpu.RoleAbout}). // does NOT cause menu item to be shifted rightward relative to other items in the list
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}).                               // discarded
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{
      Title:  "with callback",
      Role:   gogpu.RoleAbout,
      Action: func() { aboutWin.Show() },     // causes macOS gear icon to disappear
    }).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}). // discarded
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{
      Title:  "\u24D8 with callback",         // causes menu item to be shifted rightward relative to other items in the list
      Role:   gogpu.RoleAbout,
      Action: func() { aboutWin.Show() },     // causes macOS gear icon to disappear
    }).
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{Separator: true}). // discarded
    AddItem(gogpu.MenuItem{
      Title:  "ⓘ with callback",              // causes menu item to be shifted rightward relative to other items in the list
      Role:   gogpu.RoleAbout,
      Action: func() { aboutWin.Show() },     // causes macOS gear icon to disappear
    }))

[kolkov]

Thanks for the detailed reproduction and screenshot — all three issues confirmed.

1. Separators lost — our routing logic sends separators to the menu bar (invisible) instead of the App Menu submenu. GLFW puts them directly in the App Menu.
2. System icon missing on Role+Action — AddMenuItemWithCallback creates a plain NSMenuItem without the orderFrontStandardAboutPanel: selector that triggers the ⓘ icon.
3. Append vs replace — applyMenu preserves existing system items and appends, causing duplicates.

Filed as gogpu#456 with all three fixes scoped. @lkmavi — could you take a look?