Should @synthesize be used still?

Question

I\'m just wondering if @synthesize should still be used even though Xcode does it automatically for properties, simply because it\'s been done that way for so long? Or does

Answer 1

There really is no overall correct answer for this. Other than the specified technical reasons given by the other answers (such as tying an alternate ivar name to a property), I feel it is most important to keep consistent with your code. If you are contributing with older libraries that use @synthesize all over the place, you might want to stick with it in the name of consistency. Otherwise, if you are starting anew and shooting for the less verbose approach, stick with omitting @synthesize as much as possible. I personally like less verbose code, but I value code consistency somewhat more, especially when weeding through thousands of lines of code.