Why do we have to do [MyClass class] in Objective-C?

Question

In Objective-C, you can invoke class methods with:

[MyClass aClassMethod];

And you can query an instance\'s kind with:

[som         


        

Answer 1

Interesting.

In Objective-C, class name has two roles, as a data type and as a class object. As a data type name, you can do things like:

MyClass *anObject;

As a class object, the class name can stand for the class object only as a message receiver. And this is why you have to use

... isKindOfClass:[MyClass class] ...

However, I don't think this is the answer which can satisfy your need. To me, the answer is, "yes, what you want is plausible. But the spec says the other way".

Reference: The Objective-C Programming Language Page 32, section: "Class Names in Source Code".