NSView/NSViewController memory management - objective-c

Question

In a very simple test app, I have an NSViewController (strongly retained) in the appdelegate. I put this NSView inside the contentView of my NSWindow (which I have set to Release on Close in Interface Builder). But, when I exit the app, the NSView's dealloc method is never called. I would have expected it to be called by the following flow - NSWindow dealloc -> removes content view -> removes all subviews.
Also, TestViewController is not dealloced, unless I set the strong reference to it, to be nil in AppDelegate's applicationWouldTerminate method. Again, I would have expected it to be dealloced. But, it looks like AppDelegate is never dealloced.
I must be missing something basic in my understanding of Objective-C memory management. Could it be because on Mavericks Apple does a force quit of apps and hence there is no cleanup? I would appreciate being pointed in the right direction on this. Thanks
My Code
#import "AppDelegate.h"
#interface TestView : NSView
#end
#implementation TestView
- (void)dealloc { NSLog(#"TestView - Dealloc"); }
#end
#interface TestViewController : NSViewController
#end
#implementation TestViewController
- (void)loadView { self.view = [[TestView alloc] init]; }
- (void)dealloc { NSLog(#"TestViewController - dealloc"); }
#end
#interface AppDelegate ()
#property (weak) IBOutlet NSWindow* window;
#property (strong) TestViewController* testViewController;
#end
#implementation AppDelegate
- (void)dealloc { NSLog(#"AppDelegate - dealloc"); }
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
// Insert code here to initialize your application
TestViewController* testViewController = [[TestViewController alloc] init];
self.testViewController = testViewController;
[self.window.contentView addSubview:testViewController.view];
}
- (void)applicationWillTerminate:(NSNotification*)aNotification
{
// Insert code here to tear down your application
// self.testViewController = nil;
}
#end

Answer 1

App termination doesn't bother cleaning up all of the individual objects. When the process terminates, the OS X kernel simply reclaims all of the resources used by the process. This is much faster.
From the Advanced Memory Management Programming Guide:
When an application terminates, objects may not be sent a dealloc message. Because the process’s memory is automatically cleared on exit, it is more efficient simply to allow the operating system to clean up resources than to invoke all the memory management methods.
If you have stuff that really needs to be done just before the app terminates, either put it in the app delegate's -applicationWillTerminate: method or observe the NSApplicationWillTerminateNotification notification posted by the application object. Also, you need to not opt-in to sudden termination or, if your app is generally opted in to it, temporarily disable it for as long as it has something it really needs to do at termination.