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OSXCocoa Window Without XCode or Interface Builder

This document discusses creating a simple GUI application window in Mac OS X without using Xcode or Interface Builder. It explains that while the code is small, finding documentation on this was challenging since the author is new to Objective-C and Cocoa. The code sample provided opens a window programmatically by initializing an NSWindow instance and adding an NSTextView to display test text, showing it is possible with just a few lines of code.

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Jose C
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49 views3 pages

OSXCocoa Window Without XCode or Interface Builder

This document discusses creating a simple GUI application window in Mac OS X without using Xcode or Interface Builder. It explains that while the code is small, finding documentation on this was challenging since the author is new to Objective-C and Cocoa. The code sample provided opens a window programmatically by initializing an NSWindow instance and adding an NSTextView to display test text, showing it is possible with just a few lines of code.

Uploaded by

Jose C
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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OSX/Cocoa window without XCode or Interface Builder

glampert.com/2012/11-29/osx-window-without-xcode-and-ib

Nov 29, 2012 • Guilherme Lampert

So I wanted to programatically create a simple GUI application on Mac OS X, with a window


and some
other simple UI components, just like I used to do on Windows using the WinAPI.
Since I prefer command
line tools and coding, I also didn’t want to use XCode and the fancy
Interface Builder (IB) tool that Apple provides.

Sounds very simple doesn’t it? Well, like people say, hell is in the details.
The actual amount
of code required to do so is small, but the big issue was that
you just don’t find much official
Apple documentation and examples on the subject!
Since I am also a beginner with
Objective-C and Cocoa, it took me hours and hours of search
and research to finally be able
to open a simple application window on the Mac.

The following Objective-C code listing is all it takes:

1/3
/*
* File: OSXWindow.m

*
* Brief:

* Creates a OSX/Cocoa application and window without Interface Builder or XCode.

*
* Compile with:

* cc OSXWindow.m -o OSXWindow -framework Cocoa

*/

#import "Cocoa/Cocoa.h"

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])


{

// Autorelease Pool:

// Objects declared in this scope will be automatically

// released at the end of it, when the pool is "drained".

NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

// Create a shared app instance.

// This will initialize the global variable

// 'NSApp' with the application instance.

[NSApplication sharedApplication];

//

// Create a window:

//

// Style flags:

NSUInteger windowStyle = NSTitledWindowMask | NSClosableWindowMask |


NSResizableWindowMask;

// Window bounds (x, y, width, height).

NSRect windowRect = NSMakeRect(100, 100, 400, 400);

NSWindow * window = [[NSWindow alloc] initWithContentRect:windowRect

styleMask:windowStyle

backing:NSBackingStoreBuffered

defer:NO];

[window autorelease];

// Window controller:

NSWindowController * windowController = [[NSWindowController alloc]


initWithWindow:window];

[windowController autorelease];

// This will add a simple text view to the window,

// so we can write a test string on it.

NSTextView * textView = [[NSTextView alloc] initWithFrame:windowRect];

[textView autorelease];

[window setContentView:textView];

[textView insertText:@"Hello OSX/Cocoa world!"];

2/3
// TODO: Create app delegate to handle system events.

// TODO: Create menus (especially Quit!)

// Show window and run event loop.

[window orderFrontRegardless];

[NSApp run];

[pool drain];

return 0;

And this is the result:

Simple OSX window

3/3

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