On Nov 18, 2009, at 1:49 PM, Jens Alfke wrote:
This is unfortunately true. The danger is that if you add an _- prefixed method to your class, it might conflict with a private method declared in a superclass. If this happens your method will override the internal one, and Really Bad Things will probably happen. It's a rare problem but it has happened before. (And even if everything works well now, any future OS update might add a new private method in a superclass that breaks your code. Again, this has actually happened.)
This problem is just not restricted to private methods, or additions through categories. You can also run afoul of a namespace conflict with a public method in your subclass.
Suppose you have a subclass of NSView which adds - reallyNiceMethodThatOughtToBeInAppKit. If Apple adds such a method in the next OS release, the same kinds of problem can result. (Similar problems when you extend delegate protocols for your subclasses too.)
This problem is much less insidious than the category problem, but the potential does exist. (For both private and public methods.)
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