This seems like it should be such a fundamentally obvious difference, but I've been quite puzzled about it ever since I first started working with Cocoa: when is it more appropriate to call -[NSWindow orderOut:] than -[NSWindow performClose:] (or just plain -close)?
At first glance, it appears that -orderOut: is in the "window list management" portion of the API, while -performClose:/-close are in the "window existence management" portion. In other words, -orderOut: seems to operate at a lower level than -close, as -close calls -orderOut: (or the moral equivalent). So my gut intuition is that a reusable panel should be hidden with -close, and set to not release when closed, so that it may be recalled later. But then the actual framework has to go mess with this understanding. It is apparent that NSColorWell calls -orderOut: on the shared color panel, and in general there's tons of code out there that calls -orderOut: to dismiss shared panels. Not to mention the method is an IBAction, so it's obviously designed to be called from higher-level code. The documentation is woefully ambiguous: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/WinPanel/Tasks/OpeningClosingWindows.html It feels like there are two overlapping entry points in the API: the high level path (-close) that calls into the lower-level path (-orderOut:), but that the lower-level path has gained acceptance as a separate entry point since it implements most of the side effects seen in the high level path. Is this redundancy an artifact of a time before NSWindowController, when one-shot windows and releaseWhenClosed were far more commonplace than they are today? If so, is there any hope for a restructuring of the API in the future? Or does the distinction still exist as an opportunity for the framework client to maintain a distinction between "hiding" and "closing", even where the line is blurry, like in an inspector or other reusable panel? And in the meantime, can someone enlighten me as to why I would ever choose to call -orderOut: instead of -close on a properly-configured reusable panel? --Kyle Sluder _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
