NSTabView vs NSTabViewController — When to use the controller?

Question

The NSTabViewController was only introduced in OS X v10.10, so NSTabView already provides everything you need for creating a tab view. When would you use a NSTabViewController, and is it only there to be subclassed?

Answer 1

If you compare iOS & OS X, you will feel OS X is bit deviated from MVC. OS X default 'new project' opens with AppDelegate as compared to iOS with 'ViewController'!

Now, it seems, Apple decided to make it by adding Controller as well. So that the view NSTabView is controlled by NSTabViewController .

And yes if you design to subclass it and use that should reduce your job. Same thing is mentioned even in Apple Documentation .

Answer 2

I would use NSTabViewController to get rid of a lot of code I used to have to write to have a tab view and transition between those views (most often done in Preference windows in Mac apps).

You'd obviously have to be 10.10 only, but these days that's a safe bet.

As for subclassing it, judging by the api I'd start without sub-classing it. You can set the style, the transition options (a nice benefit of using it!), and then call addTabViewItem: and let it do it's stuff.