Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Some elements of Cocoa appear to be in both iOS and OS X. For example, iOS and OS X both include a class
called
NSArray
. Most classes with identical names are genuinely identical on both platforms, but some have
significant differences. You should always read the version for the correct OS.
In a beta version of an OS, the documentation may not be finished. You may find yourself reading about an OS
X class even though you have followed a search trail looking for iOS classes. This doesn't often happen, but
when it does, assume that the OS X details are also correct for iOS.
Understanding resource types
If you explore the web version of the documentation, you'll soon discover that topics are grouped in different
ways and that there's significant redundancy and irrelevance in the libraries. Some elements in the documenta-
tion are more than 15 years old, and they describe features and techniques that are no longer in use.
To use the documentation effectively, you must understand these limitations and know how to find what you
need without being distracted by irrelevant information. You also must understand the different resource types,
which are listed at the top left of Figure 6.4. Whenever you view a collection of documents about a broad topic,
you can sort them alphabetically or group them by resource type.
The resource types are less prominent when you view the documentation in Xcode. The content has been
filtered so only the most relevant details appear. This makes the Xcode viewer easier to work with, especially
when you're looking for specific information about a named class. But it does mean that some of the supporting
details available on the web don't appear in the viewer.
FIGURE 6.4
The resource types are listed at the top left of the Developer Library web pages. You're more likely to search for
specific topics and references than for resource types.
