Programming In C, C For Mac
The C programming language has been around since the 1970s, but it has never gone out of style, and learning C is one of the best computer skills you can acquire. Mac OS X comes with C built into it, and Apple has used C while making every aspect of OS X and iOS.
Programming In C, C For Mac
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Leading up to the creation of their company, both had been introduced to Smalltalk while at ITT Corporation's Programming Technology Center in 1981. The earliest work on Objective-C traces back to around that time.[6] Cox was intrigued by problems of true reusability in software design and programming. He realized that a language like Smalltalk would be invaluable in building development environments for system developers at ITT. However, he and Tom Love also recognized that backward compatibility with C was critically important in ITT's telecom engineering milieu.[7]
In 1988, NeXT licensed Objective-C from StepStone (the new name of PPI, the owner of the Objective-C trademark) and extended the GCC compiler to support Objective-C. NeXT developed the AppKit and Foundation Kit libraries on which the NeXTSTEP user interface and Interface Builder were based. While the NeXT workstations failed to make a great impact in the marketplace, the tools were widely lauded in the industry. This led NeXT to drop hardware production and focus on software tools, selling NeXTSTEP (and OPENSTEP) as a platform for custom programming.
Both styles of programming have their strengths and weaknesses. Object-oriented programming in the Simula (C++) style allows multiple inheritance and faster execution by using compile-time binding whenever possible, but it does not support dynamic binding by default. It also forces all methods to have a corresponding implementation unless they are abstract. The Smalltalk-style programming as used in Objective-C allows messages to go unimplemented, with the method resolved to its implementation at runtime. For example, a message may be sent to a collection of objects, to which only some will be expected to respond, without fear of producing runtime errors. Message passing also does not require that an object be defined at compile time. An implementation is still required for the method to be called in the derived object. (See the dynamic typing section below for more advantages of dynamic (late) binding.)
During the design of Objective-C, one of the main concerns was the maintainability of large code bases. Experience from the structured programming world had shown that one of the main ways to improve code was to break it down into smaller pieces. Objective-C borrowed and extended the concept of categories from Smalltalk implementations to help with this process.[25]
The C# and Visual Basic.NET languages implement superficially similar functionality in the form of extension methods, but these lack access to the private variables of the class.[26] Ruby and several other dynamic programming languages refer to the technique as "monkey patching".
The PC GEOS system used a programming language known as GEOS Objective-C or goc;[51] despite the name similarity, the two languages are similar only in overall concept and the use of keywords prefixed with an @ sign.
Objective-C today is often used in tandem with a fixed library of standard objects (often known as a "kit" or "framework"), such as Cocoa, GNUstep or ObjFW. These libraries often come with the operating system: the GNUstep libraries often come with Linux-based distributions and Cocoa comes with macOS. The programmer is not forced to inherit functionality from the existing base class (NSObject / OFObject). Objective-C allows for the declaration of new root classes that do not inherit any existing functionality. Originally, Objective-C-based programming environments typically offered an Object class as the base class from which almost all other classes inherited. With the introduction of OpenStep, NeXT created a new base class named NSObject, which offered additional features over Object (an emphasis on using object references and reference counting instead of raw pointers, for example). Almost all classes in Cocoa inherit from NSObject.
A common criticism is that Objective-C does not have language support for namespaces. Instead, programmers are forced to add prefixes to their class names, which are traditionally shorter than namespace names and thus more prone to collisions. As of 2007, all macOS classes and functions in the Cocoa programming environment are prefixed with "NS" (e.g. NSObject, NSButton) to identify them as belonging to the macOS or iOS core; the "NS" derives from the names of the classes as defined during the development of NeXTSTEP.
In addition to C's style of procedural programming, C++ directly supports certain forms of object-oriented programming, generic programming, and metaprogramming. C++ also comes with a large standard library that includes several container classes. Similarly, Objective-C adds object-oriented programming, dynamic typing, and reflection to C. Objective-C does not provide a standard library per se, but in most places where Objective-C is used, it is used with an OpenStep-like library such as OPENSTEP, Cocoa, or GNUstep, which provides functionality similar to C++'s standard library.
The use of reflection is part of the wider distinction between dynamic (run-time) features and static (compile-time) features of a language. Although Objective-C and C++ each employ a mix of both features, Objective-C is decidedly geared toward run-time decisions while C++ is geared toward compile-time decisions. The tension between dynamic and static programming involves many of the classic trade-offs in programming: dynamic features add flexibility, static features add speed and type checking.
Generic programming and metaprogramming can be implemented in both languages using runtime polymorphism. In C++ this takes the form of virtual functions and runtime type identification, while Objective-C offers dynamic typing and reflection. Both Objective-C and C++ support compile-time polymorphism (generic functions), with Objective-C only adding this feature in 2015.
In this digital era, nothing is possible without programming. From smartphones in our pockets to self-driving cars, everything needs programming. The cursor of the mouse which you are rolling needs programming too. Notably, knowledge of programming allows programmers to communicate with computers with their machine language.
C is a building block of many other programming languages that programmers use today. Contrary to this, C++ (the extended version of C) is similar to C but has more features. You can refer to C as a subset of C++ making it equally important for developers. Both the languages have the same syntax and code structure.
Integrated development environment, or IDE in short, is an application or software which programmers use for programming. It helps a programmer to program easily by providing all the comprehensive facilities required for the development of software. IDE can improve the productivity of a programmer or developer because of its fast setup and various tools. Without this, a programmer takes a lot of time deciding on various tools to use for his/her tasks.
It is one of the most popular, powerful and useful IDEs used by developers for C/C++ programming. It is open-source software which is simple and easy to use. Originally, it was used for Java programming but now it is used for various languages. Eclipse can run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. You can even file a bug on its website if you encounter any issue with the Eclipse IDE or compiler.
It is a cross-platform source code editor which supports several languages, including markup ones. Sublime Text has Python application programming and slick user interfaces along with incredible features and amazing performance. Programmers can also add additional functions with numerous plugins that are community-built.
It is another good IDE for C or C++ programming. It is open-source software that can run on all major platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. It provides great support for compilers and also allows users to know more about the errors by just clicking on it.
There are many programming languages, today, that allow developers to be more productive than with C for different kinds of projects. There are higher level languages that provide much larger built-in libraries that simplify working with JSON, XML, UI, web pages, client requests, database connections, media manipulation, and so on.
Blocks are a language feature introduced to C, Objective-C and C++ to represent a unit of work; they encapsulate a block of code along with captured state, which makes them similar to closures in other programming languages. Blocks are often used to simplify common tasks such as collection enumeration, sorting and testing. They also make it easy to schedule tasks for concurrent or asynchronous execution using technologies like Grand Central Dispatch (GCD).
Although Objective-C includes syntax for exception handling, Cocoa and Cocoa Touch use exceptions only for programming errors (such as out of bounds array access), which should be fixed before an app is shipped.