Re: Trying to understand -- please help...

FROM : Jeff LaMarche
DATE : Wed May 21 21:58:23 2008

On May 21, 2008, at 3:37 PM, Johnny Lundy wrote:

> I submit that any experienced programmer looking up and turning to a 
> page entitled "NSArray Class Reference" would "expect" that a 
> behavior of the class that results in one's created object being 
> deallocated out from under him would be documented in such a 
> "Reference."


Not an experienced developer who has read and understood the 
conceptual guide here:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/MemoryMgmt/MemoryMgmt.html

or more specifically, the rules here:

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/MemoryMgmt/Tasks/MemoryManagementRules.html

While it wouldn't be a bad idea for the NSArray class reference to 
explicitly document that it returns an autoreleased object, but in 
absence of explicit documentation otherwise, you should follow the 
simple, documented memory management rules of  the language/framework 
you are using. If you don't know them, that is not the documentation's 
fault.