ios - Objective-C is @synthesize required or optional?

Question

sorry I'm a newbie iOS developer, recently I've briefly heard that @synthesize is now @synthesize in a certain version of Xcode and that the compiler will auto synthesize and properties and assign _ to private variables.

I've tested this:

with out @synthesize, you can access properties and private field using

self.property_name = something;
_property_name = something; //(used in getter and setters)

with @synthesize property_name, you can access properties and private field using

self.property_name = something;
property_name = something;

My question is do we really need @synthesize anymore? or there is a bigger story I'm missing?

Answer 1

No we don't need to do that as of Xcode 4.4, which added a feature called Default Synthesis Of Properties.

Simply put, it generates this automatically:

@synthesize name = _name;