Re: Bypassing Interface Builder

FROM : I. Savant
DATE : Thu May 15 02:51:59 2008

>
> On this topic, when I drag an object out of the Library and set its 
> class, IB sets the label of the object to the Class Name. Since this 
> is an instance of the class, and not the Class Object itself, why is 
> the name capitalized?


  It's just a convenient label. If you have two ThingController 
instances and one controls SomeThing and the other controls 
AnotherThing, you'll want to name them something easily identifiable: 
SomeThing Controller and AnotherThing Controller. It's just for easy 
identification during developer editing.

> And if I want to refer by name to that instance in my code, what is 
> the name of the instance?


  Nothing. That is, not until you add an IBOutlet in whatever class 
you want to connect to that instance. Say "AppController" has an 
outlet called "thingController". You can then connect the 
AppController's someThingController outlet to the "Some Thing 
Controller" instance. Now, anywhere within your AppController class, 
you can send messages to the "Some Thing Controller" instance by its 
shiny new name:

[someThingController doSomeThing];

> Also, I found out that IB will not let me make 2 instances of the 
> same Class. In code, I could say myClassInstance1 = [MyClass new]; 
> and MyClassInstance2 = [MyClass new];, but apparently not in IB.
>

  Sure you can. Exactly the same way you did it the first time. A 
new instance is created. Whether you use the "Instantiate ..." menu 
item or drag an NSObject instance into your nib and change its class, 
doing it a second time creates a new instance.

  Are you doing something differently or getting an error?

> This has been a mystery to me for six years now.


  Ouch.


> Also, the documentation only says about File's Owner that it is the 
> object that loaded the nib file. What is that object, if my nib file 
> just gets loaded at application launch?


  Your app's NSApplication instance. This is in the documentation.

--
I.S.