Re: NSDocument-based app limitations?
Re: NSDocument-based app limitations?
- Subject: Re: NSDocument-based app limitations?
- From: mmalcolm crawford <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 00:11:23 -0800
On Mar 29, 2004, at 11:46 PM, Mark Munz wrote:
I see not being able to dynamically manipulate the list of filetypes
as a weakness. TextEdit gets around this by doing everything by hand.
But TextEdit doesn't use the document architecture...
The appropriate thing to do is for the document itself to advertise
what types it supports. Those will then be listed in the Save panel:
<
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Documents/
Tasks/FAQ.html>
Sketch shows how to use a document model, but again it's very simple
(one document type -- no dynamic changes to the type of document).
On the contrary, it only allows a single native type, but allows you to
save as PDF and TIFF.
So I'll rephrase my main question. Can I dynamically change the
filetypes that show up in the save dialog? Do I hack in and muck
with the UI elements (doesn't seem the "right way" -- but maybe
that's the way everyone does it)? Or do I have to by-pass the whole
NSDocument code completely and do it myself (like TextEdit does)?
Why do you need to dynamically change the filetypes?
Well, there's a fundamental difference between plain text files and
Rich Text files. One way to accomplish this is via TextEdit's switch
on the fly design. Another way is to create distinct document types.
The downside of the ladder approach is that it requires the user to
decide up front which type they want and if they want to change after
the initial creation, it's more difficult to switch between the two
(UI experience wise).
Another example that might also require dynamically setting up the
filetypes supported -- plug-in
filters that support additional type conversions as save.
<
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/Documents/
Tasks/FAQ.html>
"How can I support reading one type and (internally) automatically
converting to another?"
The above all seemed like very straightforward questions. The original
email (look at the thread) I posted also ask specific questions to try
to solve the same issue. So you jumped into the middle of the
discussion and just assumed that all I did was complain about the
weakness in the architecture.
Actually, I read the original messages as well -- the subject line is,
"NSDocument-based app limitations", and the first paragraph complains,
"However, it seems that NSDocument is designed for only the most basic
examples of documents." This is clearly not the case.
Yes, I've read the above documentation as well and I know that
TextEdit isn't an NSDocument based application (that was made cleaner
in both my original message & the reply to Scott's). What I am looking
for is information on doing something beyond simple document that all
the books & sample code talk about.
See the FAQ mentioned above, and also:
<
http://cocoa.mamasam.com/COCOADEV/2004/01/2/82162.php>
mmalc
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