Re: Intermediate Summary: Re: GNUstep.org website redesign proposal

[David Chisnall]

On 7 Jan 2014, at 16:13, Ivan Vučica <address@hidden> wrote:

> I definitely wouldn't go with anything like Objective-C+ARC since I, for one, 
> don't think ARC is nearly as an important addition to the language as 
> @synthesize.

I completely disagree.  @synthsize is a small improvement.  It lets you 
generate methods, but you can already do most of what it does with a macro.  
It's nice, but it's not that special.  ARC, in contrast, is a big change to the 
language.  It fundamentally changes how you think about writing code, letting 
you think about object ownership rather than reference counts.  I'd put the 
non-fragile ABI in the same category as synthesised properties - it makes code 
cleaner and easier to maintain, but doesn't really change how you use it.  
Blocks are in the same category as ARC: they're a big change to the language 
and change how you write code.  If we were to highlight two features that we 
support, blocks and ARC would be top of the list.

> And five years from now, any arguments against naming it relative to 
> Objective-C 2.0 will stand against naming it Objective-C+ARC or similar.

If our web site is still saying the same thing in five years, then we have 
other problems.  

David

-- Sent from my brain