newbie question: menu item appears when app runs, but is not visible in NIB

FROM : Paul Archibald
DATE : Thu May 29 20:25:41 2008

Comrades,

-- Newbie Alert --
This is my first posting to this list, and has to do with my first 
foray into Cocoa + ObjC + Interface Builder. I am trying to 
understand the relationships between resource elements in the NIB and 
the ObjC code the the Xcode project, and how to modify them. I have 
worked a lot with CodeWarrior and VisualC++/MFC in the past, but the 
Xcode/IB interplay seems different from either of those systems.


-- The Project --
I am modifying an existing application. Its purpose is to allow a 
user to select a source directory and several destination directories 
into which copies of the source will be copied. The existing app has 
a single window with a bunch of controls for setting directory paths 
and some options for those copies (checksums, metadata, &etc). The 
app is used to make special backup copies of a specialized data type.


-- My Task --
My job is to hook up the controls for another window. That window has 
already been built in IB, but is not functional yet. This new window 
will do some similar tasks (setting source/destination directories), 
but also does some extra stuff.


-- The Problem --
I added a menu item to switch between the new window and the old 
window. The switching works okay (sort of), but somehow along the way 
I have gotten an extra menu item into the app.

When I run the app, I see a menu item that is not visible in the NIB 
file. I recognize the extra item, I built it. However, I had some 
problems with the NIB, so I reverted to an older copy of the NIB, and 
started modifying that. I thought I had gotten rid of the old menu 
item, and I can't see it anywhere in the NIB or the ObjC code, but I 
sure see it when I run the app. What gives?

-- My Question --
How can a running app show a menu item that is not in the NIB? Where 
else does Xcode/IB store resources that I am not seeing?

Thanks for any help. I am sure to lots more questions while I work 
through tutorials and wok on this project.

Paul Archibald

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"The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size 
of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in 
full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like 
the plague."

Edsger W. Dijkstra, (Dutch computing scientist)
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