May 2002
Intermediate to advanced
646 pages
18h 57m
English
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An Introduction to Objective-C
We discussed Objective-C briefly in the last chapter. In this chapter, we’ll go into a lot more depth.
The Objective-C language was invented by Brad Cox in the early 1980s and was based on the object-oriented principles of SmallTalk. Cox wanted to create a computer environment that could be used to build software-ICs — software components that could be used to create large programs in much the same way that discrete integrated circuits are used to create computers. Cox wrote a book, Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach, in which he outlined his strategy of grafting object-oriented technology onto existing programming languages (e.g., C), rather than creating fundamentally new languages (e.g., Simula and SmallTalk). And he founded the Stepstone Corporation to bring his brainchild to the market.
Objective-C is based on two important principles. First, Cox wanted to create a language that offered much of the object-oriented programming power that existed in SmallTalk. Specifically, he wanted a language in which both classes and instances of classes were objects, a language that allowed introspection, and a language that performed the runtime evaluation of messages. Second, he wanted a language that was easy to learn and as similar to C as possible. He came up with Objective-C.
Objective-C is quite similar to the ANSI C language, but it introduces a single new type, one new operator, and a few compiler directives. These additions are ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.