Xcode 3.0

Regarding what’s new in ObjC2, here’s what I wrote on Cocodev.com.

Leopard will introduce significant updates to Objective-C, referred to officially as “Objective-C 2.0”, and unofficially as C*. The following information is gleaned from public sources: the compiler source code (http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs/branches/apple/trunk/gcc/objc/) and compiler test cases (http://gcc.gnu.org/viewcvs/branches/apple/trunk/gcc/testsuite/objc.dg/). I had not have access to privileged information at the time of writing. Kudos to Dietmar Planitzer and Dave Vasilevsky for doing a lot of the digging.

Interestingly, the compiler source code says “This module implements the Objective-C 4.0 language”, rather than 2.0.

Known new features — which will all be optional to use, at least at first — are:
• Automatic GarbageCollection.
• A new iterator construction: for (id element in someArray) { [element doStuff]; }
• @required and @optional keywords for FormalProtocols.
• Weak references, indirect object references which don’t stop objects from being garbage-collected.
• GCC attributes on methods.
• Properties. A property is an ivar with a getter and setter, unless it is read-only. There are several ways of implementing them. In the simplest form, the ivar, getter and setter are generated by the compiler: @property NSString *name;. An existing ivar may be specified: @property (ivar = _tag) int tag;. You can also specify your own getter and setter: @property (getter = getFrame, setter = setFrame:) NSRect frame;. Properties can also have two properties: readonly, meaning there is no setter, and copying, meaning the value passed to the setter will be copied. Client code uses properties by using dot notation on the object pointer: NSWindow *myWindow = getAWindow(); NSLog(myWindow.name); myWindow.frame = someRect;.
• Warnings will be generated for use of @defs and implicit typecasts of SELs?, saying these “will not be supported in future.”

It looks like XCode 3.0 is catching up to where Java IDEs were a few years ago, so there's still hope, I guess.

Xcode 3.0 has refactoring support.

Does anyone know when this will be released beyond those precious CDs at WWDC.

I paid dearly for a Select membership to the Apple ADC, but so far all that's released is a point update to XCode -- no 3.0.

Feeling left out,
Isaiah

So... Does it have REFACTORING support? There are days I would *kill* for Eclipse-style refactoring power and code manipulation support for Objective-C. Some days, it's almost enough to make me look at CocoaJava!

Please? Refactoring? Pretty please? Maybe some nice lint or CheckStyle-like stuff too?

Yes can someone pleeeease give us some more info on Objective-C 2.0!! Also would be good to have *any* info on Interface Builder 3.0

can anyone please clarify what's new in objective-c 2.0 except for garbage collection? the apple page is quite uninformative on this