Re: Stupid block syntax!
Re: Stupid block syntax!
- Subject: Re: Stupid block syntax!
- From: Charles Srstka <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2012 16:53:46 -0500
On Jul 4, 2012, at 4:37 PM, Dave wrote:
> On 4 Jul 2012, at 07:19, Quincey Morris wrote:
>
>> On Jul 3, 2012, at 22:40 , Graham Cox wrote:
>>
>>> NSComparisonResult (^comp)( id<DKStorableObject>, id<DKStorableObject> ) = ^( id<DKStorableObject> a, id<DKStorableObject> b )
>>
>> Actually, for a block literal, it's:
>>
>> … = ^NSComparisonResult ( id<DKStorableObject> a, id<DKStorableObject> b ) { … }
>>
>> The literal syntax puts the return type after the [unparenthesized] "^", unlike the pointer syntax which puts the return type before the [parenthesized] "^".
>>
>>> Could the stupid block syntax be any less intuitive?
>>
>> Well, to be fair, it's *two* stupid syntaxes.
>>
>
> I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that find the Block Syntax the pits. Myself and a colleague struggled for over an hour trying to get it right and I'm still no wiser really!
>
> What I can't understand is why it was implemented that way?!? I mean surely there could have been a clearer way of defining and executing a block of code that the one we have at present?
They did it that way because they were following the C function pointer syntax, just replacing the * with a ^. Really, the blame for this lies with Kernighan and Ritchie more than anyone else. I think Apple followed the C syntax because they may have some hopes about getting blocks officially added to some future revision of the C specification, although I’m not sure how realistic that is.
Charles
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