Re: ADC Core Data article

FROM : Ralph Scheuer
DATE : Fri Apr 08 17:28:35 2005

Phillippe,

Am 08.04.2005 um 16:52 schrieb Philippe Mougin:

> But the question, or the critic, is: why is this default interface for
> managed objects something that is dictionary-oriented instead of
> object-oriented? Something that we have to access using KVC, which, as
> others have pointed out, is ugly, not checked at compile-time, slow,
> consists in fact in using a new little embedded language etc., instead
> of a normal object-oriented interface that we could use directly
> through messaging (which is natively supported by Objective-C)?


what's your question? If you take a closer look at EOF, the situation
is quite clear: we are talking about data objects here, and you deal
with them like this: you either use KVC on the EOGenericRecord
(NSManagedObject) OR you subclass and add accessor methods and custom
logic.

How else should the whole thing be object oriented? The subclass
provides iVars (and accessors) for the data structure that is
represented by the Entity / SQL Table / whatever is being mapped to the
object, so you will basically HAVE to subclass if you need to use
accessors, don't you? Let me give you an example:

In WO (Java), I have a Customer entity that is an EOGenericRecord
subclass. This class contains firstName and lastName iVars with
appropriate accessor methods. Question: if you did not subclass here,
where can the appropriate accessor

setLastName(String newLastName) and lastName() come from?

For a WO developer, it is quite clear that YOU either have to provide
those iVars or use KVC, there is no alternative.

Maybe my thinking is too much wrapped around WO, but I could not think
of another way to do it in this case... What's the alternative,
Phillippe?

Ralph