May 2001
Beginner
384 pages
9h 37m
English
Content preview from Learning Cocoa
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Chapter 3. Objective-C Primer
The Objective-C language is a superset of ANSI C with special syntax and runtime extensions that make object-oriented programming possible. Objective-C syntax is uncomplicated, but powerful in its simplicity. You can mix standard C with Objective-C code. Programmers familiar with C and object-oriented programming techniques often find themselves right at home with Objective-C in a matter of days.
This chapter is divided into two main sections. The first section is a basic language summary listing all additions to the language. The second section summarizes some of the most frequently used aspects of the language.
See Inside Cocoa: Object-Oriented Programming and the
Objective-C Language in
/Developer/Documentation/Cocoa for complete
details.
Language Summary
Objective-C adds a small number of constructs to the C language and defines a handful of conventions used to effectively interact with the runtime system.
Messages
Message expressions are enclosed in square brackets:
[receiver message]
The receiver can be:
A variable or expression that evaluates to an object (including the variable
self)A class name (indicating the class object)
super(indicating an alternative search for the method implementation)
The message is the name of a method plus any arguments passed to it.
Defined Types
The principal types used in Objective-C are defined in the
header file objc/objc.h:
| Type | Definition |
|---|---|
id
|
An object (a pointer to its data structure) |
Class |
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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.