OSX application without storyboard or xib files using Swift

Question

Unfortunately, I haven't found anything useful on the Internet - I wanted to know, what code I actually have to type for initializing an application without using storyboard or XIB files in Swift. I know I have to have a .swift file called main. But I don't know what to write in there (like do I need autoreleasepool or something like that?). For example, what would I do for initializing an NSMenu and how would I add a NSViewController to the active window (iOS's similar .rootViewController doesn't help). Thanks for any help ;)

Edit: I actually don't want to use @NSApplicationMain in front of the AppDelegate. I'd rather know what exactly happens there and then do it myself.

Answer 1

if you don't want to have the @NSApplicationMain attribute, do:

1. have a file main.swift

2. add following top-level code:

    import Cocoa   let delegate = AppDelegate() //alloc main app's delegate class  NSApplication.shared.delegate = delegate //set as app's delegate  NSApplicationMain(CommandLine.argc, CommandLine.unsafeArgv) //start of run loop          // Old versions:  //  NSApplicationMain(C_ARGC, C_ARGV)  //  NSApplicationMain(Process.argc, Process.unsafeArgv);   

the rest should be inside your app delegate. e.g.:

import Cocoa  class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {     var newWindow: NSWindow?     var controller: ViewController?          func applicationDidFinishLaunching(aNotification: NSNotification) {         newWindow = NSWindow(contentRect: NSMakeRect(10, 10, 300, 300), styleMask: .resizable, backing: .buffered, defer: false)                  controller = ViewController()         let content = newWindow!.contentView! as NSView         let view = controller!.view         content.addSubview(view)                  newWindow!.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)     } } 

then you have a viewController

import Cocoa  class ViewController : NSViewController {     override func loadView() {         let view = NSView(frame: NSMakeRect(0,0,100,100))         view.wantsLayer = true         view.layer?.borderWidth = 2         view.layer?.borderColor = NSColor.red.cgColor         self.view = view     } } 

Answer 2

The top level code sample above no longer works in recent versions of Xcode. Instead use this:

import Cocoa  let delegate = AppDelegate() //alloc main app's delegate class NSApplication.shared().delegate = delegate //set as app's delegate  let ret = NSApplicationMain(CommandLine.argc, CommandLine.unsafeArgv) 

Answer 3

In Swift 4 it has changed slightly yet again,

The main file must have

import Cocoa

let delegate = AppDelegate()
NSApplication.shared.delegate = delegate

NSApplicationMain(CommandLine.argc, CommandLine.unsafeArgv)

The AppDelegate must be

import Cocoa


class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {
    var newWindow: NSWindow?
    var controller: ViewController?

    func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) {
        newWindow = NSWindow(contentRect: NSMakeRect(10, 10, 300, 300), styleMask: .resizable, backing: .buffered, defer: false)

        controller = ViewController()
        let content = newWindow!.contentView! as NSView
        let view = controller!.view
        content.addSubview(view)

        newWindow!.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)
    }
}

The view controller is the same