Re: Category or Protocol? (sidetrack)

FROM : Mark Dalrymple
DATE : Fri Apr 22 00:03:02 2005

>>> Much of what I do at work (e.g. rename a method that is called from
>>> literally 1000 locations in 300 files) I would never attempt with
>>> XCode or any other non-smart tool.
>>>

>>
>> .. presumed this kind of task is ever needed (and, having maintained
>> nearly million-line projects for years, I've never bumped into one
>> yet!),

>
> Turning a block of code into a method, replacing similar code with
> that method call, renaming methods or classes to support a new design,
> etc. are things that I do all the time, because they are simple
> operations with a refactoring editor.  With XCode, this has to be done
> semi-manually.


For folks who aren't afraid of the command-line, there is a handy
little tool called 'tops' that does some of these tasks in Objective-C,
like renaming functions, renaming methods, changing order of method
arguments around, and so on.  Not as pretty or convenient as a
refactoring IDE, but a little more robust than a blind regexp.

'man tops' in your favorite shell.

Cheers,
++Mark Dalrymple, <email_removed>
  http://borkware.com