What does OSX do when I customize an NSTableView cell? - macos

Question

I am trying to customize an NSImageCell for NSTableView using NSArrayController and bindings to change the background of the cell which is selected. So, I created two NSImage images and retain them as normalImage and activeImage in the cell instance, which means I should release these two images when the cell calls its dealloc method. And I override
- (void)drawInteriorWithFrame:(NSRect)cellFrame inView:(NSView *)controlView
and
- (void) setObjectValue:(id) inObject
But I find that when I click any cell in the tableview, the cell's dealloc method is called.
So I put NSLog(#"%#", self); in the dealloc method and - (void)drawInteriorWithFrame:inView: and I find that these two instance are not same.
Can anyone tell me why dealloc is called every time I click any cell? Why are these two instances not the same? What does OS X do when I customize the cell in NSTableView?
BTW: I found that the -init is called only once. Why?
EDIT:
My cell code
#implementation SETableCell {
NSImage *_bgNormal;
NSImage *_bgActive;
NSString *_currentString;
}
- (id)init {
if (self = [super init]) {
NSLog(#"setup: %#", self);
_bgNormal = [[NSImage imageNamed:#"bg_normal"] retain];
_bgActive = [[NSImage imageNamed:#"bg_active"] retain];
}
return self;
}
- (void)dealloc {
// [_bgActive release]; _bgActive = nil;
// [_bgNormal release]; _bgNormal = nil;
// [_currentString release]; _currentString = nil;
NSLog(#"dealloc: %#", self);
[super dealloc];
}
- (void)drawInteriorWithFrame:(NSRect)cellFrame inView:(NSView *)controlView {
NSLog(#"draw: %#", self);
NSPoint point = cellFrame.origin;
NSImage *bgImg = self.isHighlighted ? _bgActive : _bgNormal;
[bgImg drawAtPoint:p fromRect:NSZeroRect operation:NSCompositeSourceOver fraction:1.0];
NSPoint strPoint = cellFrame.origin;
strPoint.x += 30;
strPoint.y += 30;
[_currentString drawAtPoint:strPoint withAttributes:nil];
}
- (void) setObjectValue:(id) inObject {
if (inObject != nil && ![inObject isEqualTo:_currentString]) {
[self setCurrentInfo:inObject];
}
}
- (void)setCurrentInfo:(NSString *)info {
if (_currentString != info) {
[_currentString release];
_currentString = [info copy];
}
}
#end

Answer 1

As a normal recommendation, you should move to ARC as it takes cares of most of the memory management tasks that you do manually, like retain, releases. My answers will assume that you are using manual memory management:
Can anyone tell me why dealloc is called every time I click any cell ?
The only way for this to happen, is if you are releasing or auto-releasing your cell. If you are re-using cells, they shouldn't be deallocated.
Why these tow instance are not same ?
If you are re-using them, the cell that you clicked, and the cell that has been deallocated, they should be different. Pay close attention to both your questions, in one you assume that you are releasing the same cell when you click on it, on the second you are seeing that they are different.
What does Apple do when I custom the cell in NSTableView ?
Apple as a company? Or Apple as in the native frameworks you are using? I am assuming you are going for the second one: a custom cell is just a subclass of something that the NSTableView is expecting, it should behave the same as a normal one plus your custom implementation.
BTW: I found that the init is called only once, and why ?
Based on this, you are probably re-using cells, and only in the beginning they are actually being initialised.
It would be very useful to see some parts of your code:
Your Cell's code
Your NSTableView cell's creation code.