Objective-C Pocket Reference

Runtime Environment

When your Objective-C program is running, certain structures and services are always set up for you, even though you don’t specifically ask for them. These serve as the counterpart to the compiler: together the compiler and the runtime implement the features that Objective-C adds to C. Most languages include runtime environments; Objective-C is distinctive in exposing a good part of its runtime in a public programming interface.

The runtime’s interfaces are in header files that will be present in any installation of gcc. (For example, in Darwin they reside at /usr/include/objc. Check your compiler’s default include paths to locate these files.) You can also download the source code for the runtime; examining it is a good way to learn more about how dynamic languages are implemented.

Class Objects

Class objects are objects that represent at runtime the classes a program is using. Because they function in the same way as regular objects—you can send them messages and use them in expressions—Objective-C unifies the treatment of classes and their instances.

Class objects are also called factory objects, because in their most common usage you send them the +alloc message to create other objects.

Class objects are set up by the Objective-C compiler and initialized at runtime before your code needs to use them. To get a class object from an instance, use the -class method. For example, given an instance created this way:

Circle* c = [Circle new];

you can retrieve the class ...