[Rubycocoa-talk] Is this behavior expected?

[Javier S. <jav...@ri...>]

Hi again,

I've noticed that when I create Ruby arrays or dictionaries that are  
accessed through bindings (even for read only access) are "promoted"  
to NSCF equivalentes, that is, for example

kvc_accessor :abc
.
.
.

@abc = {}
(after @abc is accessed by the gui through a binding)
@abc.class
OSX::NSCFDictionary

This is a small nuisance perhaps, but for example, precludes me for  
simply doing Marshal.dump(@abc). (Of course I could always write  
marshal methods for NSCFDictionary, but I think that's besides the  
point), or doing simple checks on an object's class (since it could  
have mutated to the NSCF equivalent) and it gets even messier with  
dates.

Maybe this is intended but IMHO if I store a ruby value I should  
always get back a Ruby value, and when Objective-C wants to read (or  
even set) a value the bridge should not change the class but  
transform it into a Ruby class.

I understand that if a user keys in a string on a field that has a  
binding, then *perhaps* it is not so bad to get a NSCFString back,  
since it is not immediately obvious if I want a ruby string or an  
Objective-C one.  However if the binding only read the value I see no  
justification to mutate the class.

Cheers,

JS