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Last active November 3, 2025 16:04
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[SwiftUI] MacEditorTextView - A simple and small NSTextView wrapped by SwiftUI.
/**
* MacEditorTextView
* Copyright (c) Thiago Holanda 2020-2021
* https://bsky.app/profile/tholanda.com
*
* (the twitter account is now deleted, please, do not try to reach me there)
* https://twitter.com/tholanda
*
* MIT license
*/
import Combine
import SwiftUI
struct MacEditorTextView: NSViewRepresentable {
@Binding var text: String
var isEditable: Bool = true
var font: NSFont? = .systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .regular)
var onEditingChanged: () -> Void = {}
var onCommit : () -> Void = {}
var onTextChange : (String) -> Void = { _ in }
func makeCoordinator() -> Coordinator {
Coordinator(self)
}
func makeNSView(context: Context) -> CustomTextView {
let textView = CustomTextView(
text: text,
isEditable: isEditable,
font: font
)
textView.delegate = context.coordinator
return textView
}
func updateNSView(_ view: CustomTextView, context: Context) {
view.text = text
view.selectedRanges = context.coordinator.selectedRanges
}
}
// MARK: - Preview
#if DEBUG
struct MacEditorTextView_Previews: PreviewProvider {
static var previews: some View {
Group {
MacEditorTextView(
text: .constant("{ \n planets { \n name \n }\n}"),
isEditable: true,
font: .userFixedPitchFont(ofSize: 14)
)
.environment(\.colorScheme, .dark)
.previewDisplayName("Dark Mode")
MacEditorTextView(
text: .constant("{ \n planets { \n name \n }\n}"),
isEditable: false
)
.environment(\.colorScheme, .light)
.previewDisplayName("Light Mode")
}
}
}
#endif
// MARK: - Coordinator
extension MacEditorTextView {
class Coordinator: NSObject, NSTextViewDelegate {
var parent: MacEditorTextView
var selectedRanges: [NSValue] = []
init(_ parent: MacEditorTextView) {
self.parent = parent
}
func textDidBeginEditing(_ notification: Notification) {
guard let textView = notification.object as? NSTextView else {
return
}
self.parent.text = textView.string
self.parent.onEditingChanged()
}
func textDidChange(_ notification: Notification) {
guard let textView = notification.object as? NSTextView else {
return
}
self.parent.text = textView.string
self.selectedRanges = textView.selectedRanges
}
func textDidEndEditing(_ notification: Notification) {
guard let textView = notification.object as? NSTextView else {
return
}
self.parent.text = textView.string
self.parent.onCommit()
}
}
}
// MARK: - CustomTextView
final class CustomTextView: NSView {
private var isEditable: Bool
private var font: NSFont?
weak var delegate: NSTextViewDelegate?
var text: String {
didSet {
textView.string = text
}
}
var selectedRanges: [NSValue] = [] {
didSet {
guard selectedRanges.count > 0 else {
return
}
textView.selectedRanges = selectedRanges
}
}
private lazy var scrollView: NSScrollView = {
let scrollView = NSScrollView()
scrollView.drawsBackground = true
scrollView.borderType = .noBorder
scrollView.hasVerticalScroller = true
scrollView.hasHorizontalRuler = false
scrollView.autoresizingMask = [.width, .height]
scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
return scrollView
}()
private lazy var textView: NSTextView = {
let contentSize = scrollView.contentSize
let textStorage = NSTextStorage()
let layoutManager = NSLayoutManager()
textStorage.addLayoutManager(layoutManager)
let textContainer = NSTextContainer(containerSize: scrollView.frame.size)
textContainer.widthTracksTextView = true
textContainer.containerSize = NSSize(
width: contentSize.width,
height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude
)
layoutManager.addTextContainer(textContainer)
let textView = NSTextView(frame: .zero, textContainer: textContainer)
textView.autoresizingMask = .width
textView.backgroundColor = NSColor.textBackgroundColor
textView.delegate = self.delegate
textView.drawsBackground = true
textView.font = self.font
textView.isEditable = self.isEditable
textView.isHorizontallyResizable = false
textView.isVerticallyResizable = true
textView.maxSize = NSSize(width: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude, height: CGFloat.greatestFiniteMagnitude)
textView.minSize = NSSize(width: 0, height: contentSize.height)
textView.textColor = NSColor.labelColor
textView.allowsUndo = true
return textView
}()
// MARK: - Init
init(text: String, isEditable: Bool, font: NSFont?) {
self.font = font
self.isEditable = isEditable
self.text = text
super.init(frame: .zero)
}
required init?(coder: NSCoder) {
fatalError("init(coder:) has not been implemented")
}
// MARK: - Life cycle
override func viewWillDraw() {
super.viewWillDraw()
setupScrollViewConstraints()
setupTextView()
}
func setupScrollViewConstraints() {
scrollView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
addSubview(scrollView)
NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
scrollView.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: topAnchor),
scrollView.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: trailingAnchor),
scrollView.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: bottomAnchor),
scrollView.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: leadingAnchor)
])
}
func setupTextView() {
scrollView.documentView = textView
}
}
/**
* MacEditorTextView
* Copyright (c) Thiago Holanda 2020-2021
* https://bsky.app/profile/tholanda.com
*
* (the twitter account is now deleted, please, do not try to reach me there)
* https://twitter.com/tholanda
*
* MIT license
*/
import SwiftUI
import Combine
struct ContentQueryView: View {
@State private var queryText = "{ \n planets { \n name \n }\n}"
@State private var responseJSONText = "{ \"name\": \"Earth\"}"
var body: some View {
let queryTextView = MacEditorTextView(
text: $queryText,
isEditable: false,
font: .systemFont(ofSize: 14, weight: .regular)
)
.frame(minWidth: 300,
maxWidth: .infinity,
minHeight: 300,
maxHeight: .infinity)
let responseTextView = MacEditorTextView(
text: $responseJSONText,
isEditable: false,
font: .userFixedPitchFont(ofSize: 14)
)
.frame(minWidth: 300,
maxWidth: .infinity,
minHeight: 300,
maxHeight: .infinity)
return HSplitView {
queryTextView
responseTextView
}
}
}
@fletcher
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fletcher commented Nov 3, 2025

It's always interesting to see which "small" thing we put out there turns out to have long-lasting impact, and which "big" things fade quickly into obscurity.... ;)

As I mentioned, the change above seems to work. I'm not certain what downstream effects, if any, there may be. I'll defer to you as to whether it is a good fit for "upstream merging", but either way it is something that any user of MacEditorTextView should be aware of.

I had two initial desires for a more customizable text editor component as I experiment with SwiftUI to re-engineer my older Objective-C code. One part was custom typing behavior (e.g. typing a double quote should insert a pair of double quotes and move the selected range in between them.) The other was to customize autocompletion behavior (in one case to be based on data stored via SwiftData). MacEditorTextView made it easy for me substitute my own NSTextView subclass to handle the first part. (I also had a custom NSTextStorage that supports syntax highlighting that was easily swapped in as well.)

As I experiment with the autocompletion aspect, I think I am beginning to bump up against the edges of the architecture of MacEditorTextView. For example, I sometimes want to stick with the default NSTextStorage, and sometimes want to use a custom subclass that supports syntax highlighting. And now I need to use a custom NSTextViewDelegate for autocompletion, but it looks like that would require modifying the Coordinator rather than an easier swap. I suspect that the right approach for me will probably be to build something new that uses the parts of MacEditorTextView that I need and rearchitects the pieces that need to be behave differently for me.

Regardless, I am very appreciative for MacEditorTextView!!!

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