Thanks to Nils Hayat, the mysteries of the Objective-C block syntax are laid bare before my eyes:
As convoluted as it may seem, blocks syntax in Objective-C is built upon standard C syntax. A block in Objective-C is nothing more than a pointer to a function that captures its scope. Once you understand that and practice writing and reading a few blocks declaration, you’ll find it much easier to apprehend.
He walks through the basic C declaration syntax and describes the history of
the block declaration modifier, the beloved caret: ^. I finally understand
why the name of the block has to go within the first set of parenthesis, as in
int (^blockName)(int argument). I’ve used C for a long time but never had to
think about the precedence rules for declarators. After reading through Nils’
excellent summary, I don’t think I’ll need to look up the syntax again.
(via @orta)
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