Re: [libobjc] May I tweak objc-api.h?

[Kaelin Colclasure <kaelin at acm dot org>]

On Feb 6, 2004, at 8:31 PM, Nicola Pero wrote:

> > > But the structs are used in GNUStep and which cannot change just
> > > support one version of
> > > gcc.  They have to support multiple versions of gcc.  I rescind my ok
> > > on this.  Knowing that
> > > programs will brake.  Also changing it conditional on __cplusplus is
> > > okay with me as it is
> > > okay with Alex.
> >
> > Hey, we're all supposed to be OO thinkers: How about we introduce an
> > accessor macro for this field, called say OBJC_SUPER_CLASS.
>
> That wouldn't help much since previous release of libobjc don't define 
> it.
> You'd still have to make a difference between new libojcs (where you 
> can
> use the macro) and old ones (where you can't use the macro).

#ifndef OBJC_SUPER_CLASS
#define OBJC_SUPER_CLASS(s) ((s)->class)
#endif

And, like magic, your code can consistently use the macro everywhere. 
:-)

> At that point, it's entirely equivalent but simpler to use .class for 
> old
> libobjcs and .super_class for new ones.

This reduces to an argument against accessors in general.

-- Kaelin