To what class does this method belong?

Question

If one sees in the documentation something like
- (retType *) text1:(Type1 *)aType1 text2:(Type2 *)aType2;
then to what class does this method belong? I do not see in the Objective-C documentation any way that one can tell without the 'context' in which the method is declared or defined. This makes reading the documentation very difficult (for me). What you see is not what you get. There is stuff missing.
In my world there is no difficulty in determining the class to which a method belongs. It is stated explicitly in the method name. For example:
PROCEDURE (self: MyClass) methodName (arg1: Type1; arg2: Type2);
and one sees that 'methodName' belongs to 'MyClass'.
In Objective-C how does one know the class to which a method belongs? Is it only determined by context, that is, by the fact that it is within the @implementation section or that it is within the @interface section? If that is the case then I would think that in documentation one should always be required to assert something like:
<<MyClass>> -(retType *) text1:(Type1 *)aType1 ...
-Doug Danforth

Answer 1

PeeJay2,
I think I now have the distinctions needed but still have a question about what you said. But first here is my current understanding. A "method" is by definition bound to *at least* one class whereas a "message" need not be bound to any class. Hence one can send any message to any class and it will either be handled or ignored. A message looks like a method signature (and maybe one but is not constrained to be one).
The difference between C++ and Objective-C is that in C++ method calls are not messages sent to a receiver. They are just calls of the method for the dynamically bound object. That method must be syntactically correct at compile time whereas messages need not be syntactically correct for any receiver. At least that is my current understanding.
Now my question. You state that "casting the receiver of a message will in no way alter the flow of the code". I attempted to test this with a simple program but ran into a problem (see my new posting "Multiple classes in one file?").
Assume the following
@class Child : Parent
Child *child = [[Child alloc] init];
Parent *parent = [[Parent alloc] init];
Parent *bar;
bar = child;
[bar doSomething]; // (C) call to child's doSomething method?
[(Parent *)bar doSomething]; // (P) call to parent's doSomething method?
You comment seems to say that both case (C) and (P) give the same result. If they do then which result is it the parent's or the child's method (assuming that the child has indeed reimplemented the parent's method)? Have I understood you correctly?
-Doug Danforth