TextKit 2: Promised Improvements Marred by Implementation Issues
By
nickmain
Master baker tier. Every paragraph earns its place on the tray.
Summary
The article discusses TextKit 2 (NSTextLayoutManager), an API announced during WWDC21, which aimed to replace the older TextKit 1 (NSLayoutManager) with promises of improved performance and ease of use. Despite its adoption in macOS and iOS frameworks, the author highlights significant issues such as unstable scrolling, unreliable height estimates, and viewport problems, even affecting Apple's own TextEdit. The author shares their experience developing STTextView, a re-implementation of TextView using TextKit 2, and critiques the framework's real-world usability despite its good architectural design.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledTextKit 2 (NSTextLayoutManager) API was announced publicly during WWDC21, which is over 4 years ago.
Promised an easier, faster, overall better API and text layout engine that replaces the aged TextKit 1 (NSLayoutManager) engine.
The promised 'better' text engine has unstable scrolling, unreliable height estimates, and viewport issues so bad that even Apple's TextEdit suffers from them.
Good architecture, but the implementation makes it frustratingly difficult for real-world apps.
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