6 ms·

Customizing the Cocoa Text System (2006)

103 points by littlecosmic 5y ago

littlecosmic 5y ago
It's easy to forget that this little beast is all pervasive and can be customised so much. Every time I set up a new Mac, I feel happy it is here, but scared that one day it will just stop working. The perils of closed source, I guess.
- DennisP 5y ago
  For a while I was keenly interested in replacing the underlying text model with my own class, to support some weird stuff I wanted to do. It seemed like it would be straightforward, given the MVC structure, but the documentation confused me and I never quite figured it out. It didn't seem to be something Apple expected anyone to do.
  - littlecosmic 5y ago
    For sure. The whole thing feels like a happy accident that fell out of how NextStep was built.
nateroling 5y ago
Sadly, Catalyst apps seem to use a different text system, which is not customizable.
- littlecosmic 5y ago
  Thanks for the heads up. My most used feature is a simple remapping of 'backwards delete word', which still seems to work.
- kccqzy 5y ago
  Really? The built-in Stocks app is a Catalyst app AFAIK. My text system customizations still work in the search bar of the Stocks app.
  - nateroling 5y ago
    Well that’s interesting. Maybe it’s changed? Messages was not using my customizations last I tried…
gradys 5y ago
I would love to hear about the customizations my fellow HN readers use.
- ultrarunner 5y ago
  One of the first things I set up on a new Mac is option-f to move-word-forward and option-b to backward. This is so useful that I am doomed to typing ƒ on every other Mac I use temporarily
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Do you also update your shell and emacs keybindings to match? Or do you use option as meta in emacs to start with, and forego all the native option chords?
    - ultrarunner 5y ago
      Yes, although I don't spend much time in emacs anymore
  - stefanfisk 5y ago
    Isn’t that supported by default using alt-left/right?
    - anchpop 5y ago
      When I switch between mac and windows I'm always getting those confused (on windows the same is ctrl-left/right). Any advice?
- littlecosmic 5y ago
  When I was at uni I took Steve Yegge's Effective Emacs post to heart (https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs), now my most used tweak is: "^w" = (deleteWordBackward:);
bluedino 5y ago
I don't know what it is about it, but having came from Win32 and going to Cocoa (in 2008 or so), it just felt like an amazingly well engineered set of API's. Everything was so fancy and elegant, while Windows felt like hack on top of hack.
- mpweiher 5y ago
  Imagine how it felt in the early 90s!
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Unfortunately it still does, they had a nice thing going with WinRT, .NET Native and C++/CX, and they just messed it all up. Now imagine the experience porting a NeXTSTEP app into MFC back in the the Windows 98 glory days.
- 2ion 5y ago
  If the state of current (10/11) Windows UI and UX is any indicator it must have gotten much worse since 2008. I would never have done anything that shows a GUI on Windows hadn't I had access to Qt to absolve me from that hell.
mbforbes 5y ago
I was shocked and delighted to find that, after pairing a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone, the default emacs-lite Cocoa keybindings work there too. C-a to beginning of line, C-e to end, etc.
- masklinn 5y ago
  Am i just missing something or do the “command” shortcuts don’t work? Is there an option to enable? Being able to quickly type text via a real keyboard is quite neat (except for C-Spc switching the input method, turns out I hit that quite a lot), but having to get back to the phone in order to cut/copy/paste is quite frustrating.
  - Synaesthesia 5y ago
    They do work, including copy, paste, cut, undo ... cmd-h to go to home screen ... theres a lot
    - masklinn 5y ago
      Huh, you're right, it seems to be just some applications which behave oddly and break those shortcuts, I guess I'll have to take it up with them.
coolandsmartrr 5y ago
Insert (2006) in title?
legulere 5y ago
I’m still annoyed by the fact that you cannot remap caps lock to backspace.
- adamfeldman 5y ago
  I did this via an OSS app https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/ https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/
rado 5y ago
Any idea how to fix keyboard input switching, which doesn't respect each app's language? There is an option to keep each app's text input source, but it works only when an app has a text input field focused. It's my only serious issue with macOS for 17 years now.

103 points by littlecosmic 5y ago

It's easy to forget that this little beast is all pervasive and can be customised so much. Every time I set up a new Mac, I feel happy it is here, but scared that one day it will just stop working. The perils of closed source, I guess.

DennisP 5y ago
For a while I was keenly interested in replacing the underlying text model with my own class, to support some weird stuff I wanted to do. It seemed like it would be straightforward, given the MVC structure, but the documentation confused me and I never quite figured it out. It didn't seem to be something Apple expected anyone to do.
- littlecosmic 5y ago
  For sure. The whole thing feels like a happy accident that fell out of how NextStep was built.

nateroling 5y ago

Sadly, Catalyst apps seem to use a different text system, which is not customizable.

littlecosmic 5y ago
Thanks for the heads up. My most used feature is a simple remapping of 'backwards delete word', which still seems to work.
kccqzy 5y ago
Really? The built-in Stocks app is a Catalyst app AFAIK. My text system customizations still work in the search bar of the Stocks app.
- nateroling 5y ago
  Well that’s interesting. Maybe it’s changed? Messages was not using my customizations last I tried…

gradys 5y ago

I would love to hear about the customizations my fellow HN readers use.

ultrarunner 5y ago
One of the first things I set up on a new Mac is option-f to move-word-forward and option-b to backward. This is so useful that I am doomed to typing ƒ on every other Mac I use temporarily
- masklinn 5y ago
  Do you also update your shell and emacs keybindings to match? Or do you use option as meta in emacs to start with, and forego all the native option chords?
  - ultrarunner 5y ago
    Yes, although I don't spend much time in emacs anymore
- stefanfisk 5y ago
  Isn’t that supported by default using alt-left/right?
  - anchpop 5y ago
    When I switch between mac and windows I'm always getting those confused (on windows the same is ctrl-left/right). Any advice?
littlecosmic 5y ago
When I was at uni I took Steve Yegge's Effective Emacs post to heart (https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs), now my most used tweak is: "^w" = (deleteWordBackward:);

bluedino 5y ago

I don't know what it is about it, but having came from Win32 and going to Cocoa (in 2008 or so), it just felt like an amazingly well engineered set of API's. Everything was so fancy and elegant, while Windows felt like hack on top of hack.

mpweiher 5y ago
Imagine how it felt in the early 90s!
pjmlp 5y ago
Unfortunately it still does, they had a nice thing going with WinRT, .NET Native and C++/CX, and they just messed it all up. Now imagine the experience porting a NeXTSTEP app into MFC back in the the Windows 98 glory days.
2ion 5y ago
If the state of current (10/11) Windows UI and UX is any indicator it must have gotten much worse since 2008. I would never have done anything that shows a GUI on Windows hadn't I had access to Qt to absolve me from that hell.

mbforbes 5y ago

I was shocked and delighted to find that, after pairing a Bluetooth keyboard to my iPhone, the default emacs-lite Cocoa keybindings work there too. C-a to beginning of line, C-e to end, etc.

masklinn 5y ago
Am i just missing something or do the “command” shortcuts don’t work? Is there an option to enable? Being able to quickly type text via a real keyboard is quite neat (except for C-Spc switching the input method, turns out I hit that quite a lot), but having to get back to the phone in order to cut/copy/paste is quite frustrating.
- Synaesthesia 5y ago
  They do work, including copy, paste, cut, undo ... cmd-h to go to home screen ... theres a lot
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Huh, you're right, it seems to be just some applications which behave oddly and break those shortcuts, I guess I'll have to take it up with them.

coolandsmartrr 5y ago

Insert (2006) in title?

legulere 5y ago

I’m still annoyed by the fact that you cannot remap caps lock to backspace.

adamfeldman 5y ago
I did this via an OSS app https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/ https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

rado 5y ago

Any idea how to fix keyboard input switching, which doesn't respect each app's language? There is an option to keep each app's text input source, but it works only when an app has a text input field focused. It's my only serious issue with macOS for 17 years now.