Objective-C is a class-based object system. Each object is an instance of some class; the object‘s isa pointer points to its class. That class describes the object‘s data: allocation size and ivar types and layout. The class also describes the object‘s behavior: the selectors it responds to and instance methods it implements.
The class‘s method list is the set of instance methods, the selectors that the object responds to. When you send a message to an instance, Each Objective-C class is also an object. It has an Since a class is an object, it must be an instance of some other class: a metaclass. The metaclass is the description of the class object, just like the class is the description of ordinary instances. In particular, the metaclass‘s method list is the class methods: the selectors that the class object responds to. When you send a message to a class - an instance of a metaclass - What about the metaclass? Is it metaclasses all the way down? No. A metaclass is an instance of the root class‘s metaclass; the root metaclass is itself an instance of the root metaclass. The More important is the superclass of a metaclass. The metaclass‘s superclass chain parallels the class‘s superclass chain, so class methods are inherited in parallel with instance methods. And the root metaclass‘s superclass is the root class, so each class object responds to the root class‘s instance methods. In the end, a class object is an instance of (a subclass of) the root class, just like any other object. Confused? The diagram may help. Remember, when a message is sent to any object, the method lookup starts with that object‘s In proper computer science language theory, a class and metaclass hierarchy can be more free-form, with deeper metaclass chains and multiple classes instantiated from any single metaclass. Objective-C uses metaclasses for practical goals like class methods, but otherwise tends to hide metaclasses. For example, |
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