Aug 7 2020
(This is not the promised Part III of my previous series. Which is not fully functional and needs an overhaul, but right now, I am lacking time.) In most cases, users expect to find outline views as they left them. So I needed a different solution. Whether an item is expanded or not is, strictly […]
Mar 29 2020
(Here using macOS 13, Xcode 10, Swift 4.2, but NSFontDescriptor also exists on iOS, just substitute UIFont). The recommended way of saving a font is not to do it (a bit flippant, sorry) – but in WWDC session 223 from 2013 (Using Fonts with TextKit), the recommendation is specifically to a) not cherry-pick attributes (in […]
Sep 15 2019
(Xcode 10, Swift 4.2, macOS 13.6) This is a common use case: users who just want an overview get a smaller window with the most important content, users who want more detail can click a triangular button and more details unfold. I seem to have tackled this problem several times without feeling completely happy with […]
Jan 29 2019
Xcode 10, Swift 4.2, macOS 10.13. I have two text fields in my preference controller. Their purpose is to allow users to set a preferred default text style, which I will use elsewhere in my application. (This can be handled much more smoothly, but I have other problems to work out, and right now, working […]
Jan 28 2019
Xcode 10, Swift 4.2, macOS 10.13 func fileModificationDate(url: URL) -> Date? { do { let attr = try FileManager.default.attributesOfItem(atPath: url.path) return attr[FileAttributeKey.modificationDate] as? Date } catch { return nil } } FileAttributeKey.creationDate works exactly the same; .size and .type might also be of interest. This beautiful and elegant solution comes from this Stackoverflow answer and […]
Jan 13 2019
Xcode 10, macOS 13.5, Swift 4.2 Without wanting to delve too deep into the NSDocumentController class: It’s part of the document architecture, and if your app uses more than one NSDocument subclass, you will need to override the following method: override func makeUntitledDocument(ofType typeName: String) throws -> NSDocument { switch typeName { case “ThingB”: return […]
Aug 9 2018
I recently found myself in the position where I am happily using a protocol, and needed to work with equality in a context that can be summed up as: var currentObject: MyProtocol = Thing1() { willSet{ if newValue != currentObject { //perform costly operation } } (But really, equality is everywhere. Want to get the […]
May 27 2018
Xcode 9.3; macOS 10.12.6 This came out of the strange case of the scrolling SpriteKit View, which did – in the end – work fine (as in, my SpriteKit scene was displaying) and failed when I tried to add interactions to it. As a result, I went back to the drawing board, played some more […]
May 22 2018
(Xcode 9.3; macOS 10.12.6, Swift 4) If you want a challenge, I recommend you try to implement ‘scrolling SpriteKitView’ yourself before you read the rest of this article. Update (and spoiler): Due to a bug in InterfaceBuilder’s ‘SKView’, you need to use a ‘custom View’ (NSView) in Interface Builder, and change its type to SKView. […]
May 15 2018
This article on CoreData rules is the most concise I have seen. While I have looked at CoreData in some detail and used it in smaller projects, I have never felt completely confident about some of its more esotheric properties and I still flail at questions like ‘So how do I best save my data […]
Dec 30 2016
Sticky: Welcome to Extelligent Cocoa (version 3)
Terry Pratchett uses the term ‘Extelligence’ for the habit of storing information outside oneself. This Blog mainly exists to stand on the shoulders of giants and to store information in an accessible manner so that once I have solved a problem, I do not have to solve it again. ‘And because WordPress is a decent […]
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