Could someone explain to me what are the main differences between NSTextField and NSTextView? I know that NSTextView has more features and is usually used for longer texts, and NSTextField is usually used for one-line plain text fields, but if I understand correctly, NSTextField can be also used with attributed strings and with multiple lines...
What I need specifically is a control that would display the text of messages inside a timeline view like in Tweetie or any other similar software. The only requirements I have are:
- it should display text in about 1-4 lines
- it should be able to show links in the text (as I understand, this should be simple in both controls - http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/qa/qa2006/qa1487.html)
- it should let the user select and copy the text
- it should NOT let the user scroll the text, edit the text, or show the context menu that usually appears in editable text fields, it shouldn't even show a text cursor in this field
With such requirements, is it better for me to use a NSTextField or NSTextView? Is NSTextField good enough, or does NSTextView has something important that NSTextField doesn't?