Add string, mutableString methods

[muukii]

I wrote an extension of TextAttributes to enable creating NSAttributedStrings directly, like this:

let attributedString = TextAttributes()
    .font(name: "HelveticaNeue", size: 16)
    .foregroundColor(white: 0.2, alpha: 1)
    .lineHeightMultiple(1.5)
    .string("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog")

It will be even more easier to create attributed strings.
How do you think?

[delba]

Hi @muukii , thanks for the PR!

I'm sorry I won't merge it but I'll do my best to explain why and I hope it'll make sense.

The only "beef" I have with NSAttributedString / NSMutableAttributedString is the attribute dictionary:

• there is no autocompletion: you have to remember the key names or to look them up in the documentation. It's getting better with the latest versions of Xcode thanks to the fuzzy autocomplete (you can now type NS... and then find your way) but it's still not ideal.
• the key names are verbose and repetitive (.NS..AttributeName)
• it's a loosely typed [String: AnyObject] dictionary. So if you want to get the font, you have to write if let font = dictionary[NSFontAttributeName] as? UIFont { print(font) }. It won't accept optionals either as values and you end up writing bangs: [NSFontAttributeName: UIFont(name: "Avenir", size: 14)!]

I like the current way of creating an attributed string though. NSAttributedString("Hello", attributes: attrs) creates a line between the content ("Hello") and the style (attrs).
Separating the content from the style also fosters reusability of the latter:

let base = TextAttributes()
    // setterMethods

label.attributedText = NSAttributedString("hello", attributes: base)

let highlight = base.clone()
    // setterMethods

Thanks again!

[muukii]

OK!
Thanks!

[muukii]

@delba
I've created utility library.
TextAttributes is awesome! Thank you!

https://github.com/muukii/TextAttributesUtil

[delba]

Awesome! Thank you 👍

Would you like me to add it in an Extensions/ folder (that will live outside of the target, like I did for JASON) or would you prefer a link to it in the README ?

[muukii]

Thank you!

That's great.
Please, add Extensions/!

[delba]

Could you create a PR please?

Why using a closure though ? Why not your original idea of string(_:) and mutableString(_:) ?

Thanks!

[muukii]

@delba

OK, I'll create PR.

Why not your original idea of string(​_:) and mutableString(_​:)

I thought better not add a method that ends method chaining, for API consistency.

Why using a closure though

When you need to pass in multiple lines of code, I think it looks better with {} than (). Particulary ending with many ) looks bad.
Also, with closure you can have multiple statements, if you need to.

[muukii]

@delba

Sorry,
I want to write in README.
Because, Extensions/ files do not include compile.

[delba]

Hi @muukii ,

No problem, I added TextAttributesUtil in the README 2bccfe4

Thank you!

[muukii]

@delba Thanks!