[zachs]

I'm trying to create an action which would take the selected text in an NSTextView (textView), and add tags around it.

Here's the code...

- (IBAction)wrapBold:(id)sender
{
NSRange selection = [self selectedRange];
NSString *wholeThing = [self string];

NSString *oldString = [wholeThing substringWithRange:selection];
NSString *newString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", oldString];
[self insertText:newString];
}

The part in red (creating the NSRange) returns an "invalid initializer" in the PB console.

I know it must be something simple (hopefully).

Anyone have any ideas?

[chabig]

I don't think you want to send the message to self. How can a range have a selected range?

Chris

[zachs]

So then I would change it to:
NSRange selection = [textView selectedRange];

Or not...?

[Chuckit]

Is this method in your NSTextView subclass? Because it sounds like this isn't a subclass of NSTextView.

(I don't know what chabig is talking about, though; self should never refer to an NSRange, since it's incapable of receiving messages.)

[Gametes]

Actually, I think that's all fine. Wat's missing is a * as in NSRange *selection, right?

Also, I don't have he docs on hand, but make sure that insertText just replaces your selection and not the whole field's contents.

And guys, either you didn't read carefully or you or I have a serious error in understanding messaging. In the code

Code:
NSRange *selection = [self selectedRange];

the "self" is the current object running the method (boldWrap or whatever), not the NSRange class object. So if this method is a subclass or category of NSTextView, then the code is ok, but if it's some controller class, then yes, [NSTextView selectedRange] is necessary.

[calumr]

Originally posted by Gametes:
Actually, I think that's all fine. Wat's missing is a * as in NSRange *selection, right?

Nope. From the docs:

- (NSRange)selectedRange

So provided that self is an instance or subclass of NSText (which includes NSTextView) then the code is corrrect. However, from the error you are getting I would assume that self is not a subclass of NSText, and you mean to call [textView selectedRange].

Also, I don't have he docs on hand, but make sure that insertText just replaces your selection and not the whole field's contents.

I think there is a better way to do the text insertion code. It seems to get the selection, make a copy of it, and then set the selection to this new string. I think this would be a little more readable (unless I have misunderstood and you are trying to do something completely different):

Code:
NSRange selection = [self selectedRange];
NSString *wholeThing = [self string];

[textView replaceCharactersInRange:selection withString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"<b>%@</b>", [wholeThing substringWithRange:selection]]];

[Mskr]

Originally posted by Gametes:
Actually, I think that's all fine. Wat's missing is a * as in NSRange *selection, right?

Also, I don't have he docs on hand, but make sure that insertText just replaces your selection and not the whole field's contents.

And guys, either you didn't read carefully or you or I have a serious error in understanding messaging. In the code

Code:
NSRange *selection = [self selectedRange];

the "self" is the current object running the method (boldWrap or whatever), not the NSRange class object. So if this method is a subclass or category of NSTextView, then the code is ok, but if it's some controller class, then yes, [NSTextView selectedRange] is necessary.

No, NSRange is a struct, not an object. If you look in the documentation, you'll see that a lot of primatives are defined as structs (e.g. NSRect, NSPoint, NSRange, NSSize, etc.). Therefore, functions that return these structs return them by copy, and not by reference, and thus, not as pointers. The method call

Code:
NSRange selection = [self selectedRange];

is fine, as long as the boldWrap method is being defined in a subclass of NSTextView. Therefore:

Code:
// -=-=-=-=-= in MyTextView.h
#import <AppKit/AppKit.h>

@interface MyTextView : NSTextView
{
   // Whatever members you add
}

- (IBAction) wrapBold: (id) sender;
@end 

-=-=-=-=-=-= in MyTextView.m
#import "MyTextView.h"

@implementation MyTextView

// Initializers & dealloc and misc stuff

- (IBAction) wrapBold: (id) sender
{
   NSRange selection = [self selectedRange];
   NSString *wholeThing = [self string];
 
   NSString *oldString = [wholeThing substringWithRange:selection];
   NSString *newString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", oldString];
   [self insertText:newString];
}
@end

is legal and should compile fine. In fact, what I'll bet you're doing is following the example in Chapter 24 of Hillegass's fine book Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X®! What you may be missing is the sentence on page 331 which states:

"Now you will need to write the code that will swap our the NSTextView and swap in your SGMLView."

Which implies that the 'wrap:' method that you're writing will be part of the SGMLView subclass that you write.

If you're not following Hillegass, I would highly recommend it, since it's an awesome book.

Gametes: You're right about part of what you said.... self is the reference to the current object, as you said, but if this were in the controller class, you would have 'textView' as an outlet in your class:

Code:
-=-=-=-=-=-=- In SGMLController.h
#import <AppKit/AppKit.h>

@interface SGMLController : NSObject
{
    IBOutlet SGMLView *textView;
    // Whatever else
}

-  (IBAction) wrapText: (id) sender;
@end

-=-=-=-=-=-=- In SGMLController.m
#import "SGMLController.h"

@implementation SGMLController

- (IBAction) wrapText: (id) sender
{
   NSRange selection = [textView selectedRange];
   NSString *wholeThing = [textView string];
 
   NSString *oldString = [wholeThing substringWithRange:selection];
   NSString *newString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@", oldString];
   [textView insertText:newString];
}
@end

You wouldn't use [NSTextView selectedRange], since that would only work if - () selectedRange was a class method.

And, yes, insertText does this:

insertText:

- (void) insertText: (id) aString

Inserts aString into the receiver's text at the insertion point if there is one, otherwise replacing the selection. The inserted text is assigned the current typing attributes.

This method is the means by which typed text enters an NSTextView. See the NSInputManager class and NSTextInput protocol specifications for more information.

See Also: - typingAttributes

[emphasis added by me]. Hope this helps.