What does the property “Nonatomic” mean?

Question

What does \"nonatomic\" mean in this code?

@property(nonatomic, retain) UITextField *theUsersName;

What is the difference between atomic an

Answer 1

In a multi-threaded program, an atomic operation cannot be interrupted partially through, whereas nonatomic operations can.

Therefore, you should use mutexes (or something like that) if you have a critical operation that is nonatomic that you don't want interrupted.