After rotation UIView coordinates are swapped but UIWindow's are not?

Question

Using Xcode 4.2.1 iPad iOS 5.0.1, create a new "Single View" iPad project. In the controller, add:

- (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation {
    return YES;
}

- (void) dumpView: (UIView *) view {
    CGRect frame = view.frame ;
    CGRect bounds = view.bounds ;
    CGPoint center = view.center ;

    NSLog(@"view [%@]:%d frame=%@ bounds=%@ center=%@"
          ,   NSStringFromClass(view.class)
          ,   [view hash]
          ,   NSStringFromCGRect(frame)
          ,   NSStringFromCGRect(bounds)
          ,   NSStringFromCGPoint(center)) ;
}

- (void) didRotateFromInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation) fromInterfaceOrientation {

    NSLog(@"INViewController.didRotateFromInterfaceOrientation: %d to %d", fromInterfaceOrientation, self.interfaceOrientation) ;
    [self dumpView: self.view] ;
    [self dumpView: self.view.superview] ;
}

Run it, rotate the device and you will get:

INViewController.didRotateFromInterfaceOrientation: 2 to 4
view [UIView]   bounds={{0, 0}, {1024, 748}} center={394, 512}
view [UIWindow] bounds={{0, 0}, {768, 1024}} center={384, 512}

In other words, the UIView has its coordinates "swapped to landscape" as expected, but its parent UIWindow still claims to be in portrait mode...

Also, the UIView size seems to be slightly wrong: the y coordinate which should be at 20 is at 0 ...

Anyone knows what this means?

Answer 1

The UIWindow's coordinate system is always in portrait orientation. It applies the rotation by setting its rootViewController's view's transform. For example, I created a test app using the single-view template and ran it. In portrait orientation:

(gdb) po [[(id)UIApp keyWindow] recursiveDescription]
<UIWindow: 0x9626a90; frame = (0 0; 768 1024); layer = <UIWindowLayer: 0x9626b80>>
   | <UIView: 0x96290e0; frame = (0 20; 768 1004); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x96286a0>>

After rotating left:

(gdb) po [[(id)UIApp keyWindow] recursiveDescription]
<UIWindow: 0x9626a90; frame = (0 0; 768 1024); layer = <UIWindowLayer: 0x9626b80>>
   | <UIView: 0x96290e0; frame = (0 0; 748 1024); transform = [0, 1, -1, 0, 0, 0]; autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x96286a0>>

After rotating right:

(gdb) po [[(id)UIApp keyWindow] recursiveDescription]
<UIWindow: 0x9626a90; frame = (0 0; 768 1024); layer = <UIWindowLayer: 0x9626b80>>
   | <UIView: 0x96290e0; frame = (20 0; 748 1024); transform = [0, -1, 1, 0, 0, 0]; autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x96286a0>>

Notice how the transform is set (to a 90-degree rotation matrix) when the device is rotated.

Regarding your question about the UIView size: a view's bounds are in its own coordinate space, and by default a view's bounds' origin is at the origin (0,0) of its coordinate space. A view's frame is in its parent's coordinate space. You can see the 20 you were expecting in the recursive descriptions above, or by printing the frame directly:

(gdb) p (CGRect)[[[[(id)UIApp keyWindow] subviews] lastObject] frame]
$2 = {
  origin = {
    x = 0, 
    y = 20
  }, 
  size = {
    width = 768, 
    height = 1004
  }
}