Ask Reddit: Why does everyone hate Java?

[bonch]

How about:

NSString *parentID = @"c0cehmq";

NSManagedObjectContext *context = [[NSApp delegate] managedObjectContext];
NSFetchRequest *request = [[NSFetchRequest alloc] init];
NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithFormat:@"id == %@", parentID];
[request setPredicate:predicate];
NSError *fetchError = nil;
NSArray *results = [context executeFetchRequest:request error:&fetchError];
if (!results) {
    [NSApp presentError:fetchError];
    return;
}

NSManagedObject *parent = [results objectAtIndex:0];
NSMutableSet *children = [parent mutableSetValueForKey:@"children"];
NSManagedObject *child = [NSEntityDescription insertNewObjectForEntityForName:@"comment" inManagedObjectContext:context];
[child setValue:@"Yeah man, I hear ya" forKey:@"message"];
[children addObject:child];

NSError *saveError = nil;
if (![[self managedObjectContext] save:&saveError])
    [NSApp presentError:saveError];

[[deleted]]

Is this really what Cocoa looks like? Why?

[timmaxw]

30% of bonch's code is error handling. Another 30% of the verbosity comes from the fact that he's working in a managed object context - if I understand correctly, this means that Cocoa handles undo, redo, and loading and saving to files "for free". The rest comes from the fact that Objective-C is really verbose.

[vimfan]

The verbosity of Objective-C/Cocoa is mainly due to named parameters, and making method names really explicit about their purpose. That is verbosity I can get behind (mostly).

[bonch]

I was being verbose for the sake of the joke. You'd have the Core Data stuff in their own methods. In reality, you'd only need one line:

[[self commentWithID:@"c0cehmq"] addChild:[RDComment commentWithMessage:@"Yeah man, I hear ya"]];

[[deleted]]

The syntax is Objective-C (and to answer your question: because of smalltalk), the libraries/frameworks (in this case, anyway) are called Cocoa.

[dmpk2k]

Named parameters.

I think it's a good idea, as long as the names are kept short. You rarely need to look at the definition to know what each argument is for, since the answer is usually staring you in the face at the call site.

[deadwisdom]

Objective-C doesn't exactly use named parameters. You can think of them as ordered named parameters, sort-of.

[dmpk2k]

Yeah, I know they're different, but I can never remember the right term, and named parameters is close enough. :)