jspahrsummers

Many Cocoa programmers, myself included, want a more modern programming language than Objective-C, and a more modern programming environment than Cocoa. There's been some talk about what would better fit the bill, and engineers are ready to build that solution, but the question first needs to be answered – what are the most important problems to solve?

I've created the following unordered list of hypothetical goals for improvement to Cocoa/Objective-C, and would like to see how important each one is to the community. If you're interested in sharing your opinion, please fork this gist and order the below list. Feel free to add anything that you think might be missing.

Thanks!

Potential Goals

• Functional programming, where function application is the main way to invoke code. This does not refer to using objects in a functional style.
• Referential transparency, also sometimes known as purity or immutability.

jspahrsummers

mutableStringWithString :: Id -> IO Id
mutableStringWithString str =
    getClass "NSMutableString" <.> stringWithString str

arrayWithObjects :: [Id] -> IO Id
arrayWithObjects objs = do
    getClass "NSArray" <.> arrayWithObjectsAndCount objs (length objs)

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@implementation OuterClass

- (id)init {
    self = [super init];
    if (self == nil) return nil;

    _outerQueue = dispatch_queue_create(NULL, DISPATCH_QUEUE_CONCURRENT);

    self.innerObject = [[InnerClass alloc] init];
    self.innerObject.delegate = self;

jspahrsummers

// doesn't work with __block variables
#define keypath2(PATH) \
	do { \
		const char *_path = strchr(# PATH, '.') + 1; \
		\
		id _capturingBlock = ^{ \
			return PATH; \
		}; \
		\
		struct _literal { \

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describe(@"CGRectDivide macro", ^{
	CGRect rect = CGRectMake(10, 20, 30, 40);

	it(@"should accept NULLs", ^{
		CGRectDivide(rect, NULL, NULL, 10, CGRectMinXEdge);
	});

	it(@"should accept pointers", ^{
		CGRect slice, remainder;
		CGRectDivide(rect, &slice, &remainder, 10, CGRectMinXEdge);

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// Assumes 'value' is retained.
CFTypeRef value = NULL;

__autoreleasing obj __attribute__((objc_precise_lifetime)) = CFBridgingRelease(value);
return (__bridge CFTypeRef)obj;

jspahrsummers

Error reading generic password: The user name or passphrase you entered is not correct.
Error reading internet password: The specified attribute does not exist.
Error reading generic password: An invalid record was encountered.
Error reading internet password: An invalid record was encountered.

jspahrsummers

- (void)resizeSubviewsWithOldSize:(CGSize)oldSize {
    [super resizeSubviewsWithOldSize:oldSize];

    CGRect availableRect = CGRectInset(self.bounds, GHGitSetupViewHorizontalMargin, GHGitSetupViewVerticalMargin);

    CGFloat labelWidth = fmax(CGRectGetWidth(self.nameLabel.bounds), CGRectGetWidth(self.emailLabel.bounds));

    CGRect nameRect = CGRectZero;
    CGRectDivideWithPadding(availableRect, &nameRect, &availableRect, CGRectGetHeight(self.nameTextField.bounds), GHGitSetupViewControlVerticalPadding, CGRectMaxYEdge);
    CGRectDivideWithPadding(nameRect, self.nameLabel.frame, self.nameTextField.frame, labelWidth, GHGitSetupViewControlHorizontalPadding, CGRectMinXEdge);

jspahrsummers

Simple visual illustrations of how CGRectDivideWithPadding works.

Slicing from CGRectMinXEdge

  +-------+---------+------------>
e |       |         |
d | slice | padding | remainder…
g |       |         |
e |       |         |

jspahrsummers

#!/bin/sh
#
# Example usage:
# ./macroview.sh -IThirdPartyHeadersToInclude file.m

clang -E -nostdinc -nobuiltininc "$@" 2>/dev/null | indent -bl -nce -nei