Popup window similar to Xcode's code completion?

Question

I would like to build something similar to the code-completion feature in Xcode 4. (The visual style and behavior, not the data structure type work required for code completion).

As the user is typing, a pop-up window presents other word choices that can be selected.

The Feature in action:

I'm not exactly sure where to start. I am mainly concerned with the visual appearance of the window and how I should populate the list with a given set of words. Later I will get into making the window follow the cursor around the screen and etc.

I am mainly looking for an overview of how to display such data in a "window", and how to cusomize the appearance of the thing so it looks like a nice little informational popup rather than a full-on OS X window.

Answer 1

Just add a subview to your current view that happens to be a tableview. Programmatically cause it to be visible on an event (such as mouseDown), and adjust it's position based on where you want it. You will need to instantiate the proper delegate/datasource methods, but it should be pretty straight forward. You will also need a source for the words you want to use in your autocomplete, and put them in an array or something for your tableview datasource to go through.

Like I said, it's not terribly hard, provided you are comfortable using tableviews and adding views to your existing view. If this doesn't explain enough, leave a comment and I can flesh this comment out more.