Cocoa in a Nutshell

How to Use This Quick Reference

Part II crams a great deal of information about Cocoa into a relatively small space. In this chapter we take a look at how this information is organized and how to read the quick-reference entries.

Organization of the Quick Reference

Chapter 13 and Chapter 15 cover the classes of the Foundation and Application Kit frameworks. Chapter 14 and Chapter 16 contain quick-reference entries for the protocols of these two frameworks. Within these four chapters quick-reference entries are arranged alphabetically. Finally, the Method Index contains an alphabetical listing of every method in the Foundation framework and Application Kit. Each method name in the index has a list of classes that implement that method. Here’s how to read a quick reference entry.

Description

Following the title of each quick-reference entry is a brief description of the class or protocol. Descriptions may be as short as a couple of lines, or as long as several paragraphs of text.

Hierarchy

Every class in the quick reference has a figure illustrating the hierarchy of the class, and any protocols adopted by the class or its ancestors. In the hierarchy figure classes appear as rectangles containing the name of the class, and formal Objective-C protocols appear as rectangles with rounded corners. The root object of each hierarchy (either NSObject or NSProxy ) is at the left of the figure, with subclasses extending horizontally to the right. Subclasses are connected by a solid line, which ...