Open Radar

 
Summary:
Prior to iOS 8, -[UIImage imageNamed:] was threadsafe, although not documented as such. However, since it is an alloc/init helper method, it does not seem like the type of thing to require being explicitly tagged as thread-safe.

Additionally, this method is the only way to access the asset catalog. This change makes asset catalogs available only on the main thread, which is not helpful for me.

I feel like some of the following need to happen if it to continue being non-threadsafe:

1) Explicitly tag the method in documentation as being not threadsafe. I've been doing Cocoa programming for something like 10 years now and I never would have assumed it's one of those "UIKit methods aren't threadsafe"-class things.
2) Give public methods to access the asset catalog to load images. I cannot do this myself, and -[UIImage imageNamed:] is my only mechanism to do so., and if it's not threadsafe, I cannot use asset catalogs off the main thread.
3) Create a new method which does the convenience @2x, ~iPad, etc., without the caching layer.
4) Reconsider making this method not threadsafe.

I would prefer this method return to being threadsafe because I have existing applications myself which implicitly depend on this behavior, and I don't feel like having them start crashing on iOS 8 unpredictably when they worked fine on iOS 7.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Call -[UIImage imageNamed:] off the main thread.
2. Call -[UIImage imageNamed:] on the main thread.
3. Crash

Expected Results:
The program does not crash as the method is threadsafe.

Actual Results:
The program does crash.

Version:
Version 6.0 (6A267n)