NSTableView incompatibility MacOSX/GNUstep

[Andreas Höschler]

Hi Fred,

I just had the attached discussion on macosx-dev@omnigroup.com about an 
NSTableView incompatibility issue between MacOS 10.2/GNUstep and MacOSX 
10.5. After thinking this over for a while I feel that we should 
consider to adopt the new behaviour in GNUstep. It's different but it 
has a real (may be even important) advantage.

If we indeed adopt that we should at least allow the user to choose one 
of the two behaviours with a user default.

Regards,

  Andreas

> > we are in the process of migrating our software from MacOSX 10.2 and 
> > GNUstep to MacOSX 10.5 and figured out a bunch of weird issues 
> > [modifications to AppKit we dislike to say the least, or that we 
> > don't understand yet] that prevent our apps from working properly.
> >
> > Our apps build NSTableViews programmatically (based on a property 
> > list) and sets the columns to editable or not using [tableColumn 
> > setEditable:flag]. All our tableviews also get
> >
> >         [tableView setDoubleAction:@selector(performDoubleActions)];
> >         [tableView setTarget:self];
> >
> > The behaviour we expect and are used to since the old OPENSTEP days 
> > (the same on MacOSX 10.2 and GNUstep) is that a doubleclick in an 
> > editable column starts editing the cell, a doubleclick on a 
> > non-editable column invokes the doubleaction of the tableview. On 
> > MacoSX 10.5 the action is always invoked, no cell is editable anymore 
> > whether setEditable:YES was invoked or not. :-(
>
> That's probably not correct. Initiating an edit has changed on 10.5 
> though. You have to single click the cell in the selected row to edit, 
> rather than double click. This means you first have to select the row, 
> then wait at least the double-click time, and then click again.

I checked that and can confirm this behaviour. However, editing the 
cell is started only whit a short-single-click on the cell. Editing is 
not started when it takes me more than half a second to release the 
mouse button again!?

> So it works like changing a file name in Finder.
>
> I personally also feel this is annoying, but it's something we'll have 
> to get used to, as it's now the reality.
>
> On the other hand, this allows you to have both an editable cell and a 
> double click action for the same cell.

I see the ratio. Thanks for the explanation. I would prefer to be able 
to modify this (switch back to old) behaviour in System Preferences 
though. :-(

The new approach has the above mentioned advantage but is simply less 
efficient. :-(

> > Is this supposed to be a feature? If so I don't understand the 
> > reasoning. Or am I missing anything.
>
> Yes for both questions.
>
> > We commented out the line that sets the action for now. Now the 
> > columns that got a setEditable:YES are editable. However, one has to 
> > do a direct hit on the text to start editing. If one doubleclicks 
> > slightly to the right of the text (but still within the cell) editing 
> > is not started anymore. This is pretty annoying!! :-(
>
> I also think that the need to click on the text is annoying behavior. 
> I'm not sure if it's a bug though, but I truly fail to see any reason 
> for this (AOT single-click editing I described above). Especially for 
> still empty cells it makes it really hard to edit. I do believe this 
> is cause for a bug report (or at least an enhancement request).

For empty cells I see the old behaviour. You can click anywhere within 
the cell and editing gets started!

When I remove the doubleaction from the tableview I get the old 
behaviour back (doubleclick on a cell starts editing). I slowly get the 
idea ...

> > Please tell me that I am doing things wrong and that these 
> > incompatibilities can be overcome with a few #ifdefs! I can't believe 
> > what I see...
>
> So it's not an incompatibility you're seeing. Everything you could do 
> in the past you can still do now. And in fact you can do more. It just 
> works differently.

Yes, in the past one could not have a doubleaction on a tableview with 
all cells being editable (at least on cell had to be non-editable and 
the user had to doubleclick on that to invoke the doubleaction). The 
new approach allows to have a doubleclickable tableview with all cells 
being editable.

> You can't simply revert back to the old editing behavior, it would 
> require you to override several methods in NSTableView, like 
> mouseDown:. It's very tricky to do that correctly. Moreover, this is 
> now the standard behavior, so better be consistent. So I advice you to 
> get used to it.

It's actually an incompatibility issue for us since some users are 
working on Macs, others (most) are working on Sun Rays 
(GNUstep/Solaris). But that's our problem and Apple couldn't care less. 
:-)

It might make sense for GNUstep to adopt the new behaviour. Anyway, 
thanks for the helpful discussion. My faith in Apple just returned. :-)

Regards,

 Andreas