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GNU Objective C notes
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*********************
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This document is to explain what has been done, and a little about how
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specific features differ from other implementations.  The runtime has
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been completely rewritten in gcc 2.4.  The earlier runtime had several
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severe bugs and was rather incomplete.  The compiler has had several
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new features added as well.
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This is not documentation for Objective C, it is usable to someone
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who knows Objective C from somewhere else.
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Runtime API functions
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=====================
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The runtime is modeled after the NeXT Objective C runtime.  That is,
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most functions have semantics as it is known from the NeXT.  The
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names, however, have changed.  All runtime API functions have names
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of lowercase letters and underscores as opposed to the
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`traditional' mixed case names.
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        The runtime api functions are not documented as of now.
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Someone offered to write it, and did it, but we were not allowed to
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use it by his university (Very sad story).  We have started writing
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the documentation over again.  This will be announced in appropriate
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places when it becomes available.
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Protocols
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=========
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Protocols are now fully supported.  The semantics is exactly as on the
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NeXT.  There is a flag to specify how protocols should be typechecked
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when adopted to classes.  The normal typechecker requires that all
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methods in a given protocol must be implemented in the class that
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adopts it -- it is not enough to inherit them.  The flag
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`-Wno-protocol' causes it to allow inherited methods, while
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`-Wprotocols' is the default which requires them defined.
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+initialize
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===========
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This method, if defined, is called before any other instance or class
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methods of that particular class.  This method is not inherited, and
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is thus not called as initializer for a subclass that doesn't define
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it itself.  Thus, each +initialize method is called exactly once (or
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never if no methods of that particular class is never called).
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Besides this, it is allowed to have several +initialize methods, one
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for each category.  The order in which these (multiple methods) are
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called is not well defined.  I am not completely certain what the
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semantics of this method is for other implementations, but this is
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how it works for GNU Objective C.
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Passivation/Activation/Typedstreams
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===================================
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This is supported in the style of NeXT TypedStream's.  Consult the
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headerfile Typedstreams.h for api functions.  I (Kresten) have
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rewritten it in Objective C, but this implementation is not part of
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2.4, it is available from the GNU Objective C prerelease archive.
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   There is one difference worth noting concerning objects stored with
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objc_write_object_reference (aka NXWriteObjectReference).  When these
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are read back in, their object is not guaranteed to be available until
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the `-awake' method is called in the object that requests that object.
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To objc_read_object you must pass a pointer to an id, which is valid
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after exit from the function calling it (like e.g. an instance
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variable).  In general, you should not use objects read in until the
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-awake method is called.
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Acknowledgements
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================
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The GNU Objective C team: Geoffrey Knauth  (manager),
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Tom Wood  (compiler) and Kresten Krab Thorup
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 (runtime) would like to thank a some people for
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participating in the development of the present GNU Objective C.
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Paul Burchard  and Andrew McCallum
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 has been very helpful debugging the
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runtime.   Eric Herring  has been very helpful
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cleaning up after the documentation-copyright disaster and is now
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helping with the new documentation.
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Steve Naroff  and Richard Stallman
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 has been very helpful with implementation details
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in the compiler.
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Bug Reports
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===========
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Please read the section `Submitting Bugreports' of the gcc manual
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before you submit any bugs.

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