Q: My Objective-C messages take too long compared with C function calls. What can I do?\
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A: We have chosen to pay a certain performance cost in exchange for the benefits of object-oriented programming. What is really important is to amortize the added overhead of a message send over the cost of running your program. The cost of writing and maintaining correct code is also a consideration.\
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There is a way to optimize tight loops in code. The method "methodFor:" returns a pointer to the actual function used to implement a method. This can be used at the beginning of a tight loop to cache the call. Example:\
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\f0\fs24 IMP func;\
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func = [anObject methodFor:aSelector];\
while (loopingTightly) \{\
...\
func(anObject, @selector(aSelector), args ...);\
...\
\}\
\f3\fs28 \
As long as anObject is not changing value in that inner loop, then this technique does not sacrifice any of the advantages of Objective-C (e.g., dynamic binding) and is just as efficient as normal C.\
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However, there is a very subtle error that can be introduced by using the methodFor: method to get the pointer to the implementation of a method. methodFor: returns an IMP which is a pointer to a function which returns an id. It is prototyped to take an id, a SEL, and then a variable number of arguments, which are, of course, unprotoyped because depending on the method, those arguments could be anything. This lack of a complete ANSI prototype can produce ill effects. Without prototypes, arguments are subject to promotion. Chars are promoted to int, floats are promoted to double, and so on. \
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The concern is with floats. Let's say you have a method that takes a float as an argument. Objective-C methods conform to the ANSI prototyping rules and expect a 32-bit float to be put on the stack for that method. And when that method is called normally, 32 bits are put on the stack and it all works out. \
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Now you get the IMP by calling methodFor: for that selector. You try to directly call the function, passing a float. Because the function was not explicitly prototyped, old-style C takes over and that float is promoted to a 64-bit double. When that 64 bits is placed on the stack for a method which expects a 32-bit float — catastrophe strikes! The method tries to interpret the first 32 bits of the 64-bit double as a float, which doesn't work, and any arguments which follow the float in the parameter list are also messed up.\
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The solution: construct the proper prototype for the function pointer in question , something like this:\
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\f0\fs24 id (*func)(id,SEL,float,...); \
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func = (id (*)(id,SEL,float,...))[anObject methodFor:@selector(aSelector)];
The prototype ensures that methodFor: returns a pointer to a function that returns an id and has the arguments an id, a selector, a float, and other variable arguments. If the sight of prototypes scares you, another solution is to structure the necessary methods to simply take doubles.\
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You must take similar precautions and coerce the return value when the method does not return an id. Here floatValue is a method which returns a float.\
