Why is self allowed in static context in objective c

Question

Why is using self allowed in static context in Objective-C?

I thought it was allowed and then I encountered memory errors that took me a week to find ou

Answer 1

self is only allowed within the context of an Objective-C method. By "static context" I assume you mean within a class method (that is, one whose signature starts with + rather than -.) Your assertion that "self is not an alias for calling other static methods" is incorrect.

self is allowed in those cases so that you can:

1. pass the class around as an object, since all Objective-C classes are themselves objects
2. send messages to a class without specifying the class name, in case a method is overridden in a subclass ([Foo bar] will use Foo's implementation always; [self bar] will use whatever implementation is available in self.)