Private methods in API should always start with underscore

Originator:cedric.luthi
Number:rdar://10888383 Date Originated:18-Feb-2012 12:17 AM
Status:Duplicate/7424841 Resolved:
Product:iPhone SDK Product Version:5.0
Classification:Serious Bug Reproducible:Not Applicable
 
Duplicate of rdar://7424841

* Summary:

To avoid a repeat of the "Great Add Object If Absent" disaster as described by bbum:

http://lists.apple.com/archives/objc-language/2009/Nov/msg00077.html

and any similar debacle, all private methods (and functions, for that matter) implemented by Apple should start with an underscore. This, combined with a clearly-defined precedence for original versus category-defined methods, would make adding methods to framework classes by category or by subclass much safer.

* Steps to reproduce:

Implement a method in a category or subclass whose name happens to be the same as Apple-private API.

* Expected results: 

No selector name collisions.

* Actual results:

Selector name collisions.

* Regression:

Every time a private method is added without an underscore prefix, the issue becomes more likely to surface.

* Notes:

This would have the added benefit of making the case stronger that developers should avoid using underscores for their own private methods!

Comments

Not that I don't agree, but: always prefix category methods on classes you don't own (e g if yor standard prefix is XY, do -(void)xy_fooBar:(int)baz, not -(void)fooBar:(int)baz). Method might be added in public API in the future, e g.

By joachimb at Feb. 19, 2012, 12:54 a.m. (reply...)

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