Question about Style wrt "private" methods
Question about Style wrt "private" methods
- Subject: Question about Style wrt "private" methods
- From: Michael de Haan <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:44:12 -0800
In the newly released "Cocoa design patterns" (Buck and Yacktman), the chapter discussing Delegates includes an example, which in it's implementation file, has the following method, which is defined/declared like this: ( I have removed the actual definition)
- (float)_myBarShouldChangeValue:(float)newValue
/*! Give the delegate a chance to change the new value */
{
if(...something....)
{
....more method definition.....
}
return newValue;
}
The method, as alluded to above, is not declared in the interface, and the compiler does not complain as it is called from a method later/after this.
The Authors note:
".....The convention of naming so-called private methods with an underscore and a prefix reduces the chance that someone might inadvertently override or call the method."
I just wonder how this meshes with Apple's documentation: (Private methods in "Coding guidelines for Cocoa")
"Names of most private methods in the Cocoa frameworks have an underscore prefix (for example, _fooData ) to mark them as private. From this fact follow two recommendations.
• Don’t use the underscore character as a prefix for your private methods. Apple reserves this convention."
I have hunted around for a thread in cocoa, which I was looking at, ( and of course which I cannot find now) that implied that "extensions" seemed to be the way that this should be addressed.
I am not asking to start another huge thread, but, seeing that this has **just** been published, and in every other way is providing a really solid approach (for me) to Cocoa, and trying to start out "right", is there an easy answer to the seemingly contradictory advice, or it is just possible/likely, that I have missed some very important issues.
Thanks in advance.
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