How to set up an NSTextView programmatically with explicit NSLayoutManager, NSTextStorage, NSTextContainer?

Question

Following the apple documentation I am trying to set up a simple NSTextView via its two constructor methods.

I am placing the below code inside the v

Answer 1

You need to keep a reference to the NSTextStorage variable you create. I'm not quite sure about the mechanics of it all, but it looks like the text view only keeps a weak reference to its text storage object. Once this object goes out of scope, it's no longer available to the text view. I guess this is in keeping with the MVC design pattern, where views (the NSTextView in this case) are meant to be independent of their models (the NSTextStorage object).

import Cocoa

@NSApplicationMain
class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {

    @IBOutlet weak var window: NSWindow!

    var textView: NSTextView!
    var textStorage: NSTextStorage! // STORE A REFERENCE

    func applicationDidFinishLaunching(aNotification: NSNotification) {
        var view = window.contentView as NSView
        textStorage = NSTextStorage()
        var layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
        textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)
        var textContainer = NSTextContainer(containerSize: view.bounds.size)
        layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
        textView = NSTextView(frame: view.bounds, textContainer: textContainer)

        textView.editable = true
        textView.selectable = true
        view.addSubview(textView)

        textView.textStorage?.appendAttributedString(NSAttributedString(string: "Hello more complex"))
    }
}