Help!: of Swarm, Objective-C and gdb

[William S. Shu]

I am trying to learn swarm using a prototype application.  Could I be
assisted with the following, though they may be naive.   (I am suffering
from information overload from Swarm, Objective-C and gdb; e.g., can't
recall where erstwhile irelevant information was found.)

A) Swarm:
1)    I want a swarmObject to "self-destruct" under certain conditions, but
sending the message:
        [self drop];
        causes segmentation violation.  (It would seem execution path is
lost!)  I do not have any problem if another object sends the message, but
it makes my code unduly complicated and not self-contained.  Can anyone
explain to me how to achieve self-destruct elegantly?

2)    Related to (1) above, will I face any problems with parallel access to
objects when deleted? or when not in the same group acti

3)    How are the protocols (??) CREATABLE etc used in object
(declarations?).  I recall seeing some example usage/explanation somewhere,
but can't trace it.  (Variant in Swarm documentation *not* informative
enough.)



B) Objective-C
1)    I try to define a category, but Objective-C complains (warns) that
certain methods are not seen, unless I define them in the initial object!
The program seems to run OKAY.  But what am I doing wrong?

2)  In C, I use typedefs to preserve/defer design decisions, especially with
prototype implementations and shared code.  Objective C will not allow
things like:
            typedef id <List> Cluster    // clusters are of type id with
List protocol
            id <int>    x;                       // restrict values of id to
those of type int

How does one get the equivalents without elaborate effort.  Probably I don't
need them, but transistion pains would reduce with a bit more type control!



C) using gdb on Objective-C:
1) How do I:
    * make command aliases (so as to avoid lengthy typing).
    * display the the fields of objects, but without having to type-cast
each field in substructures, or being displayed fields you do NOT want.
(The document by Martin Cracauer does not cover this!)
    * have/access a history of gdb commands typed in current session.


2) Is there a simple way of getting help for such commands from the on-line
help?



Thanks

william.

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