ftp.nice.ch/pub/next/developer/resources/classes/InspectorManager.README

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InspectorManager

InspectorManager is a class designed to provide complete inspector functionality for any application.  Although this is not the first publicly available class that provides this functionality, InspectorManager has a fundamental design difference that makes it more flexible than the other available classes I have seen.  The other classes I have seen directly bring up a particular panel when a popUpList item is chosen, while InspectorManager sends a message to a delegate, which must bring up the required panel.  Sure, it sounds like more work, but it has a strong advantage: it allows a single popUpList item (eg. 'Contents' in Workspace Manager) to bring up one of many actual inspectors (eg. '.snd', '.tiff', '.h', etc.).

Features of InspectorManager class:

1) PopUpList items are not tied to particular inspectors, so that an inspector appropriate for the currently selected object can be shown
2) Allows inspector views laid out in any of an application's nib files to be managed by a single InspectorManager
3) Uses command-key equivalents for switching between inspectors and displaying the panel (as is done in Workspace Manager and Interface Builder)
4) Uses compositing to an offscreen buffer to speed swaps between inspectors    
5) Allows an inspector view to consist of multiple smaller views, if desired

Complete documentation for the class is given in the file InspectorManager.rtf.

Hopefully no one will ever again need to spend any time writing code to implement an inspector:-)

Kevin Brain
ksbrain@zeus.UWaterloo.ca 

These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.