NSViewController for each row in View-Based NSTableView?

Question

Usual good practice in Cocoa dictates that each NSView should have its own NSViewController as its owner. Should this apply to each row of a View-Based NSTableView and, if so, what's a good strategy for initializing and caching these NSViewControllers?

Answer 1

In most cases this would be overkill. No need for every NSView to have a controller. What about views which have no relationship with the model layer - in which case a mediator/controller would be unnecessary? In a large table, this would lead to a proliferation of controller objects that are likely unneeded.

I would take a close look at the TableViewPlayground sample project available in the documentation. Notice in that project how Apple uses the various views that comprise the rows. In particular, focus on the ATComplexTableViewController class and its associated nib file. Here, the dataSource for the table view returns views for which the dataSource itself acts as the mediator between the view and the model.