On Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 7:39 PM, Chris Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> It is perfectly legal to return an NSMutableArray from a hypothetical > +(NSArray *)array method. > > However, all the sender of that +(NSArray *)array message can know is that > the result can be treated as an NSArray. It can't know whether an NSArray > or NSMutableArray is returned (unless it does extra work, like using > -isKindOfClass:, which also happens to be fragile). Sure. But it gives you *more* information than if it just returns "id". I agree with you in all other respects of your post, but I don't agree that +[NSArray array] returns "id" because if it returned "NSArray *" you'd have to have a separate declaration for +[NSMutableArray array]. Indeed, that line of reasoning leads to John's way of thinking: that if you return something more specific than "id", it is in some sense indicative that the returned object is more likely to be of a specific class, rather than a subclass thereof. Hamish _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
