Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

Worse yet, the more ivars you add, the more you’re writing the same code over and over
again.
Objective-C 2.0 introduces explicitly named properties via a compact header syntax:
#import
@interface BMPerson : NSObject {
NSString *name;
NSUInteger age;
}
+ (BMPerson *)personWithName:(NSString *)aName age:(NSUInteger)anAge;
@property (retain) NSString *name;
@property (assign) NSUInteger age;
@end
That’s nice, but what’s really amazing is what this does for your implementation:
#import "BMPerson.h"
@implementation BMPerson
+ (BMPerson *)personWithName:(NSString *)aName age:(NSUInteger)anAge;
{
BMPerson *newPerson = [[self alloc] init];
newPerson.name = aName;
newPerson.age = age;
}
return [newPerson autorelease];
- (void)dealloc;
{
self.name = nil;
}
[super dealloc];
@synthesize name, age;
@end
That’s a lot less code. For one thing, all the setter and getter method implementations have
been replaced by one line:
@synthesize name, age;
CHAPTER 26 MAC OS X DEVELOPMENT: OBJECTIVE-C 509
That compiler directive inserts the standard implementations, keeping you from having to
type them over and over again. The generated implementations are faster than the handwritten
ones and are executed atomically, meaning they are thread-safe. Better results for less work?
That’s the Objective-C way.
Dot syntax, on the other hand, is decidedly not the Objective-C way, yet when it comes to
accessing and mutating property values, the compactness of dot syntax is actually nicer than the
readability of Objective-C syntax. Objective-C 2.0 gives you the best of both worlds. Now you
can use dot notation and simple assignment to get and set properties: