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Fwd: usage of #import?


From: Lars Sonchocky-Helldorf
Subject: Fwd: usage of #import?
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 22:07:39 +0100

maybe some of you are interested in this:

Anfang der weitergeleiteten E-Mail:

Von: Don Yacktman <don@misckit.com>
Datum: Sa, 02. Nov. 2002  21:03:22 Europe/Berlin
An: "Philippe C.D. Robert" <philippe.robert@gmx.net>
Kopie: cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com
Betreff: Re: usage of #import?

On Saturday, November 2, 2002, at 12:13  PM, Philippe C.D. Robert wrote:
the official advice/message/rule from the gcc folks is not to use "#import" anymore at all. Although it still works with gcc 3.x it is considered as deprecated (see -Wno-import). Now Apple is still using #import in 10.2 thus I wonder what Apple's position is in this respect? What should be used by 3rd party developers for custom ObjC code? How will Apple deal with this in the future?

Can anyone from Apple explain or comment the official position.

I'm not an Apple official source, but I know the history of this having been around since the NeXT days...

Basically, #import has been "deprecated" since the moment Objective-C was added to gcc because Stallman doesn't like it. (His rant about #import is one of the most luddite things I've ever read.) NeXT and now Apple have both continued to use it and, if history is followed consistently, will continue to use it whether or not Stallman likes it. End of story.

That "deprecation" has literally been a part of GCC for well over a decade! And every few years, some poor soul spots it and wonders what the hell is going on. It's not exactly a FAQ, but it's definitely one of the bizarre insanities that the NeXT community just got used to...


More background and my personal ranting, with a little reason thrown in:

Many consider Brad Cox's book on Objective-C to be a definitive work on what is required to make a language be Objective-C. You could argue it is, since he did invent Objective-C after all. But NeXT, and now through acquision, Apple owns the trademark on the language's name. NeXT added a few extensions to the language that I consider invaluable, so I think Cox's book is only a bare minimum, really. And according to Cox, the #import directive is an integral part of Objective-C, one of the few additions to the C language to turn C into Objective-C. So by any reasonable measure, #import is a part of the Objective-C language, as defined by the people with the right to decide what is or isn't Objective-C.

While Stallman can deprecate #import all he wants, I intend to keep using it. Stallman has no place telling the world what can or can't be part of a language he didn't invent and he doesn't control. Hell, he can't really even say that the compiler is "his" at this point; it's got a life of its own. That's the nature of large open source projects -- they outgrow their creator(s). Without an ANSI standard for Objective-C, the body that holds the Objective-C trademark decides what is or isn't Objective-C. That body is Apple, not Stallman.

Now he has his reasons for not liking #import. Frankly, I disagree with him. I like it, because I hate having to pollute headers with guards. I think they're ugly and the compiler should be smart enough to only pull things in once so that I don't need to add that cruft to every freaking header. Yes, there are cases when you want to bring things in multiple times, but they are rare. Let the developer override those explicitly since they are the exception, not the norm. The normal case is what #import handles, and allows you to stick to writing code, as opposed to wasting time adding header guards. So I think Stallman is being / has been an ass about the #import directive.

But really, it boils down to a "religious" argument as to whether or not #import has any merit. Stallman's main arguement against it really just boils down to "it doesn't please me aesthetically and as long as I can force my vision upon others, I'll try to". Regardless, I and many others think #import does have merit.

However, religious argument or not, Stallman has no place telling people what can or can't be in Objective-C. #import is a part of Objective-C unless and until Apple officially decides it isn't. Considering how much source code would be broken by such a change -- millions upon millions of lines -- I seriously doubt Apple will change the definition of the Objective-C language to suit Stallman.

So feel free to use #import all you want. And, if it makes you happy, flip a virtual bird at Stallman every time you do.

--
Later,
Don Yacktman
don@misckit.com
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