Need help wih references - ARC + Cocos 2d - objective-c

Question

ARC is kicking my ARC
I installed cocos 2d and was unhappy seeing as I wanted to use ARC. I am having an issue that I can't quite seem to figure out.
Instruments is saying I have 5 references to my GraphicsManager object, yet I can only conclude 4 of them. I need to create and release many of these.
Class "RowManager" (CCLayer) calls class "GraphicsManager" (CCNode) to make these Objects. RowManager calls its methods to move the objects via selector:
[self schedule:#selector(row:) interval:.01]
Finally, when the object arrives at a point, method "row1Finished" is called who then creates one more reference to the object before calling the object to (die) remove it's own children.
I can get all three animations to stop, get the object to detach from the RowManager and disappear, yet the dealloc method still does not call itself. What am I doing wrong?
To convert my non-arc cocos2d template I followed the instructions here:
http://www.learn-cocos2d.com/2012/04/enabling-arc-cocos2d-project-howto-stepbystep-tutorialguide/
/////////////////
#interface RowManager : CCLayer {
GraphicsManager *graphicsObject;
}
#implementation RowManager
-(id) init
{
if( (self=[super init]) ) {
graphicsObject = [[GraphicsManager alloc] initWithBoatType:#"flatboat" withWord:#"life" usingCharacter:#"Puchai" orientation:#"up" visible:YES];
graphicsObject.tag = 21;
graphicsObject.position = ccp(offset,size.height/4.1);
[self addChild: graphicsObject];
[self schedule:#selector(row1:) interval:.01];
[self schedule:#selector(rotate:) interval:6];
// etc…
-(void)row1:(ccTime)dt{
// scroll the object across the screen
graphicsObject = (GraphicsManager *)[self getChildByTag:21]; // reference: for the row method
graphicsObject.position = ccp(graphicsObject.position.x-1, graphicsObject.position.y);
if (graphicsObject.position.x < 0 - graphicsObject.boatWidth){
[self row1Finished];
}
}
-(void)rotate:(ccTime)dt {
//waggle the object a bit
graphicsObject = (GraphicsManager *)[self getChildByTag:21]; // reference 2: for the rotate method
[graphicsObject runAction:[CCSequence actions:
[CCRotateBy actionWithDuration:1 angle:.8],
[CCRotateBy actionWithDuration:2 angle:-.8],
[CCRotateBy actionWithDuration:1 angle:-.8],
[CCRotateBy actionWithDuration:2 angle:.8],
nil]];
}
-(void) row1Finished {
graphicsObject = (GraphicsManager *)[self getChildByTag:21]; // reference 3: to reference the referenced
[self unschedule:#selector (row1:)];
[self unschedule:#selector(rotateBoat:)];
[graphicsObject die]; // call within object class to remove references
[self removeChild:graphicsObject cleanup:YES];
graphicsObject = nil;
}
/////////////////////
in Graphics Manager Class:
///////////////////
#interface GraphicsManager : CCNode {...}
#property CGFloat boatWidth;
…etc
#implementation GraphicsManager
#synthesize boatWidth;
- (void) die {
[self unschedule:#selector(puchaiRow:)]; // reference 4 animation
[self stopAllActions];
[self removeAllChildrenWithCleanup:YES]; // removes sub objects created in class
NSLog(#"Died");
}
- (void)dealloc
{
CCLOG(#"Graphics Manager dealloc: %#", self);
}
-(id)initWithBoatType:(NSString *)boatType orientation:(NSString *)orientation
{
self = [super init];
if (self){
if ([orientation isEqual: #"upstream"]){
flatBoat = [CCSprite spriteWithFile:#"flatBoat.png"];
flatBoat.anchorPoint = ccp(0,0);
self.boatWidth = [flatBoat boundingBox].size.width;
[self addChild:flatBoat];
[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] addSpriteFramesWithFile:#"puchai.plist"];
puchai = [CCSprite spriteWithSpriteFrameName:#"puchai1.png"];
puchai.anchorPoint = ccp(0,0);
puchai.position = ccp(20,30);
puchai.tag = 4;
[self addChild:puchai];
[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] addSpriteFramesWithFile:#"cube.plist"];
cube = [CCSprite spriteWithSpriteFrameName:#"cube1.png"];
cube.scale = .80;
cube.tag = 56;
cube.visible = NO;
cube.position = ccp(150,45);
[self addChild:cube];
cube = [CCSprite spriteWithSpriteFrameName:#"cube2.png"];
cube.scale = .80;
cube.position = ccp(-1 +150,[cube boundingBox].size.height +45);
cube.tag = 57;
cube.visible = NO;
[self addChild:cube];
[self schedule:#selector(puchaiRow:) interval:3]; // reference 4 animation
flatBoatWing = [CCSprite spriteWithFile:#"flatBoatWing.png"];
flatBoatWing.anchorPoint = ccp(0,0);
flatBoatWing.position = ccp(25,17);
[self addChild:flatBoatWing];
}
///etc
-(void)puchaiRow:(ccTime)dt{
puchai = (CCSprite *)[self getChildByTag:4];
[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache] addSpriteFramesWithFile:#"puchai.plist"];
NSMutableArray *frames = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
for (int i = 1; i<=8; i++) {
NSString *frameName = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"puchai%i.png",i ];
[frames addObject:[[CCSpriteFrameCache sharedSpriteFrameCache]
spriteFrameByName:frameName]];
}
CCAnimation *a = [CCAnimation animationWithSpriteFrames:frames delay:1.0f/5.0f];
[puchai runAction:[CCAnimate actionWithAnimation:a]];
//////////
here is the zombies:history output.
# Address Category Event Type RefCt Timestamp Size Responsible Caller
0 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Malloc 1 00:02.748.439 208 -[RowManager init]
1 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Retain 2 00:02.748.447 0 -[GraphicsManager initWithBoatType:withWord:usingCharacter:orientation:visible:]
2 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Release 1 00:02.748.449 0 -[GraphicsManager initWithBoatType:withWord:usingCharacter:orientation:visible:]
3 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Retain 2 00:02.841.543 0 -[CCScheduler scheduleSelector:forTarget:interval:paused:repeat:delay:]
4 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Retain 3 00:02.841.572 0 ccArrayAppendObjectWithResize
5 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Retain 4 00:03.477.669 0 -[RowManager row1:] <--- AHA!!!!
6 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Retain 5 00:03.482.438 0 -[RowManager row1Finished]
7 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Release 4 00:03.482.439 0 -[RowManager row1Finished]
8 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Release 3 00:03.482.480 0 -[CCScheduler removeHashElement:]
9 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Release 2 00:03.483.435 0 ccArrayRemoveObjectAtIndex
10 0x13ea95e0 GraphicsManager Release 1 00:03.483.436 0 -[RowManager row1Finished]

Answer 1

you can use (__bridge id) to exclude from ARC, what do you need to exclude & use manual Retain-Release.

Answer 2

Should [self unschedule:#selector (row1:)]; be [self unschedule:#selector (row:)];? That would keep an extra reference alive.

Answer 3

Solved the problem by reviewing the zombies history one more time. In row1, I did not set the object to nil after calling row1finished, breaking the law: for each reference in the same class you must "nillify" all references to zero...
Moral of the story: the reason it was difficult to find the bug was because I had scheduled the row1 routine and was letting it run about 50 times, causing a bunch of retain releases in the zombies history making it impossible to reduce by elimination. I commented out the surrounding code getting rid of all that and was able to get a zombies output that i could parse.
Thanks all for your input! I guess I know how to use instruments a little better now!
-(void)row1:(ccTime)dt{
graphicsObjectRow1 = (GraphicsManager *)[self getChildByTag:11];
graphicsObjectRow1.position = ccp(graphicsObjectRow1.position.x + 1,graphicsObjectRow1.position.y);
// if (graphicsObjectRow1.position.x > screenX/4){
[self row1Finished];
graphicsObjectRow1 = nil;
// graphicsObjectRow1.position = ccp(offset,size.height/4.1);
// }
}