[xmlvm-users] Using categories vs. encapsulation in Objective-C compat-lib

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 I think that having java_util_ArrayList.m be a category on NSMutableArray is a clever use of categories, but wouldn't encapsulation generally be a more flexible option? One potential issue I see with the category approach is that since java_util_ArrayList.m and java_util_LinkedList.m are both categories on NSMutableArray, what happens if the client java code relies on checking the kind of the list using reflection? Won't java_util_ArrayList and java_util_LinkedList then be indistinguishable from each other at runtime?

The same goes for the other classes where categories are used: String, StringBuffer, HashMap/Set, URI/URL, etc.