# NSClassDescription class reference

rfm@gnu.org
2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Software documentation for the NSClassDescription class
Foundation/NSClassDescription.h
Each instance of this class provides descriptive information for an Objective C class. This is used for key-value coding, a framework used in Cocoa for scripting with Objective-C objects. Scripting is available in GNUstep in many ways, however those implementations do not make use of class descriptions. Therefore the primary purpose of this class is to smooth the process of porting between GNUstep and other OpenStep-derived systems.
classDescriptionForClass:
aClass
Returns the class description for aClass . If there is no such description available, sends an `NSClassDescriptionNeededForClassNotification` (with aClass as its object) so that objects providing class descriptions can register one, and tries again to find one.
Returns `nil` if there is no description found.
Handles locking to ensure thread safety and ensures that the returned object will not be destroyed by other threads.
invalidateClassDescriptionCache
Invalidates the cache of class descriptions so the new descriptions will be fetched as required and begin to refill the cache. You need this only if you suspect that a class description should have changed.
registerClassDescription:
aDescription
forClass:
aClass
Registers aDescription for aClass... placing it in the cache and replacing any previous version.
attributeKeys
Returns the attribute keys - default implementation returns `nil`.
inverseForRelationshipKey:
aKey
Returns the inverse relationship keys - default implementation returns `nil`.
toManyRelationshipKeys
Returns the to many relationship keys - default implementation returns `nil`.
toOneRelationshipKeys
Returns the to one relationship keys - default implementation returns `nil`.
Software documentation for the NSObject(NSClassDescriptionPrimitives) category
Foundation/NSClassDescription.h
Description forthcoming.
attributeKeys
Returns the attribute keys supplied by the object for the receivers class.
classDescription
Returns the object for the receivers class.
inverseForRelationshipKey:
aKey
Returns the inverse relationship keys supplied by the object for the receivers class.
toManyRelationshipKeys
Returns the to many relationship keys supplied by the object for the receivers class.
toOneRelationshipKeys
Returns the to one relationship keys supplied by the object for the receivers class.