Dot Syntax

[jacobhb]

Fairly newbish question that has been plaguing me for some time now.

I have a class called "Board"
Here is the Interface:

@interface Board : NSObject 
{
	int width;
	int height;
	int numCells;
	
	SpawnPoint *spawnPoint;
	Cell *endPoint;
	
	NSMutableArray *cells;
}

I have another class "PathNodeManager"

@interface PathNodeManager : NSObject 
{
	@private
	NSMutableArray *pathNodes;
	Board *gameBoard;
}

@implementation PathNodeManager
- (id)initWithGameBoard: (Board *) newGameBoard
{
	self = [super init];
	
	if( self !=nil )
	{
		self.gameBoard = newGameBoard;
		
		for( int i=0; i<self.gameBoard.numCells; i++)
			[self.pathNodes addObject:nil];
	}
	
	return self;
}

Now here is the question. When I use self.gameBoard I cannot use auto completion. However, if i just type "gameBoard" auto completion works fine. It seems that dot syntax does not like the "self." in front of it. My understanding is that you should always refer to member variables with a "self.". Should I just give up on dot syntax all together?

Thanks,
Jacob

[FlyingDiver]

Is it just the editor autocompletion that's bothering you, or is the code actually working differently?

The dot syntax you're using is normally used to invoke the compiler generated setter/getter methods that are created when you use @property/@synthesize. Since you don't have those, the editor is probably somewhat confused. Looks like the compiler doesn't care (unless you're getting errors you haven't mentioned).

joe

[jacobhb]

Sorry, I left out the @property/@synthesize from the code I linked. I have a
@property (retain) Board *gameBoard;
and
@synthesize gameBoard;

Yeah the only issue is xcode not auto competing. Everything compiles and runs fine. I just find it weird that xcode would not auto complete if I add self. onto one of my member variables.

Originally Posted by FlyingDiver

Is it just the editor autocompletion that's bothering you, or is the code actually working differently?

The dot syntax you're using is normally used to invoke the compiler generated setter/getter methods that are created when you use @property/@synthesize. Since you don't have those, the editor is probably somewhat confused. Looks like the compiler doesn't care (unless you're getting errors you haven't mentioned).

joe

[FlyingDiver]

Originally Posted by jacobhb

Sorry, I left out the @property/@synthesize from the code I linked. I have a
@property (retain) Board *gameBoard;
and
@synthesize gameBoard;

Yeah the only issue is xcode not auto competing. Everything compiles and runs fine. I just find it weird that xcode would not auto complete if I add self. onto one of my member variables.

Auto-completion is flaky, IMHO.

joe

[jacobhb]

Originally Posted by FlyingDiver

Auto-completion is flaky, IMHO.

joe

Thanks for the reply, I just wanted to make sure I was not doing something wrong.