macOS NSTextView, Attributed string and binding colors

[varsis]

Okay here's the deal. I have a NSTextView. It colors the text accordingly by code... I am setting up the preferences to change the colors, but not have been successful with live updating of the text.

I have bound the NSColors to NSUserdefaults. It works, but doesn't update unless you edit the textview. I can get it to work by calling the function...

[self textStorageDidProcessEditing:[NSNotification notificationWithName:@"new" object:[myTextView textStorage]]];

But this method is far to slow... (Coloring is done through textStorageDidProcessEditing

Anyone have any ideas? Something im missing?

Thanks
Chris

 

[kainjow]

It's a little unclear what you're asking. Are you wanting to figure out a faster way to update the text view? If so have you tried a simple setNeedsDisplay: ? Also what are the colors actually set to? Meaning, is it just a single color for all the text, or are you implementing some form of syntax highlighting?

 

[varsis]

It's a little unclear what you're asking. Are you wanting to figure out a faster way to update the text view? If so have you tried a simple setNeedsDisplay: ? Also what are the colors actually set to? Meaning, is it just a single color for all the text, or are you implementing some form of syntax highlighting?

I have setup syntax highlighting using Regex Kit. Currently setup in the
textStorageDidProcessEditing:

But Issue is I just need the colors updated not reload and look for all the regex commands.

 

[JoshDC]

How about defining a custom attribute that defines the syntactical nature of the word (when you color them) and enumerating over that attribute using:

- (void)enumerateAttribute:(NSString *)attrName inRange:(NSRange)enumerationRange options:(NSAttributedStringEnumerationOptions)opts usingBlock:(void (^)(id value, NSRange range, BOOL *stop))block

As long as 10.6 only is okay...

 

[varsis]

How about defining a custom attribute that defines the syntactical nature of the word (when you color them) and enumerating over that attribute using:

- (void)enumerateAttribute:(NSString *)attrName inRange:(NSRange)enumerationRange options:(NSAttributedStringEnumerationOptions)opts usingBlock:(void (^)(id value, NSRange range, BOOL *stop))block

As long as 10.6 only is okay...

Im still supporting 10.5 right now.

 

[Eraserhead]

I'd be curious to know how to do this as well as I couldn't figure it out myself. And I need 10.4 support .

 

[JoshDC]

You could create a custom method that performs the same job as the enumeration one using:

- (id)attribute:(NSString *)attributeName atIndex:(NSUInteger)index effectiveRange:(NSRangePointer)aRange

I can't see that this should be any slower than the 10.6 method which, in my testing, seems fairly quick (finishes in <100ms on a 1500 line file highlighting over 3000 items).

 

[varsis]

You could create a custom method that performs the same job as the enumeration one using:

- (id)attribute:(NSString *)attributeName atIndex:(NSUInteger)index effectiveRange:(NSRangePointer)aRange

I can't see that this should be any slower than the 10.6 method which, in my testing, seems fairly quick (finishes in <100ms on a 1500 line file highlighting over 3000 items).

I may just have to try that. The method I found that works right now...

	NSTextStorage *textStorage = [textView textStorage];
	NSMutableArray *attributeRun = [NSMutableArray arrayWithArray:[textStorage attributeRuns]];
	[[attributeRun objectAtIndex:0] setForegroundColor:[NSColor blackColor]];
	[textStorage setAttributeRuns:attributeRun];

Seems to work just fine. But slow on larger files.

 

[Acorn]

if you are making a syntex highlighter any chance you can port it to ipad. currently there is no apps in the app store that is a syntex highlighter and it would be nice to have one for my comming ipad.

 

[varsis]

if you are making a syntex highlighter any chance you can port it to ipad. currently there is no apps in the app store that is a syntex highlighter and it would be nice to have one for my comming ipad.

I could make something up, I think I will be ordering an Ipad to develop for when I have the time.