iOS view size and position hard-coded only? - ios4

I'm new to Macs and iOS, I got my app running on webOS, Android, and WPF/Windows. In all cases the size of, say, a 'widget' to display a bunch of text, can change depending on the dimension of the text to be displayed, as well as the position can be up against another widget. As the text size changes, the position will change so that all the widgets are crammed together nicely.
I've been searching for this capability in IOS4 in books and on-line, and it's starting to look like in iOS, you have to actually calculate the size of the text to be displayed in ViewText and then change the dimensions of ViewText, which of course then bumps other Views around to accommodate this size change. It sounds like a nightmare. Isn't there some other way to do this (like all the other GUIs can do) to size based on content, and to position relative to other Views like stacking them all together whatever size they are?
Same with ScrollView, it looks like the size of the window you actually see has to be manually specified as well, instead of, say, taking up the entire viewable window and then you can populate the ScrollView with a bunch of sub-views, some of which are below the initially viewable area? I tried this in Xcode4, but so far, haven't gotten it to work.
Similarly with creating an object with a NIB and instantiating that NIB onto an existing View, how does it determine where to position this NIB onto the existing screen?
Thanks!

Paul,
For the scrollview you need to set the bounds so it fills the screen or the area you wish it to occupy, it will then automatically generate scrollbars based on the layout within it. In the land of iOS you do have to do extensive layout work such as positioning and sizing your controls but you can also use the UIAutoResize (if I remember correctly) masks such as if they are anchored to a size, fill the area, etc. It's a little complicated to learn initially but you'll get the hang of it.
As for text you just need to use the right control, I believe what you want is a UITextView and set the options on it as needed.
When you view a XIB it's going to layout initially as you have it, again, you need to position your controls AND set their anchors (autoresize masks) so they adjust based on the screen size (phone vs. pad) and orientation: landscape vs. portrait.
HTH

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