What is Objective-C?

Mammadowr

4 min readDec 3, 2022

Hey everyone! 🙋‍♂️

As you know, most of my articles are swift-related. I decided to start sharing some articles about Objective-C.

In this article, we are going to see what is Objective-C. This is short introduction and get-to-know to Obj-C.

Before we start, let me ask you one question. 😏

Did you read my previous articles? If not, then I strongly advise you to check them as well:

What is Objective-C?

Objective-C is a popular object-oriented and reflective programming language developed by overwriting the C programming language. Designed in 1980 by Brad Cox and Tom Love at Stepstone, this programming language uses a structure similar to the syntax of the C programming language. Objective-C was licensed by NeXT in 1988. Today, it is a comprehensive and capable programming language that Apple prefers to use in its software.

It is an accepted fact by the developers that Objective-C, which emphasizes the use of objects, is a challenging process to learn. Although its syntax is C, there are no special libraries. When developers want to use libraries, they can define libraries with the help of triggers (if any). Again, you can develop Objective-C using SDK environments such as Cocoa and Xcode (Apple-specific), which are well known to developers.

Since Objective-C has become a completely Apple-targeted language, you need to have a Mac with an Intel processor to start your Objective-C work. If you can’t afford a Mac, you can start learning and coding Objective-C on OS X on a virtual computer.

Apple has undoubtedly played a major role in Objective-C’s growing popularity and staying at the top. Today, Objective-C is used in all software created on OS X-based systems. Apple also knows that Objective-C is a challenging process. The difficulty of learning Objective-C, which was thought to be outdated, caused the number of developers on the platform to decline. In 2014, Apple introduced Swift, a syntactic and easier-to-learn language alternative, to broaden the range of developers. Although Swift lags behind Objective-C in some respects, much of the next generation developer population is turning to Swift over Objective-C when targeting the Apple ecosystem.

Learning Objective-C is challenging but not impossible. If you have learned a programming language before, you can learn Objective-C mush easily, especially if you have a predisposition towards the C programming language. You can access a detailed preliminary training document prepared by Apple for Objective-C here which is completely free of charge!

A sample “Hello World!” output in Objective-C looks like this

#import
#import
int main(void)
{
NSLog(@"Hello, world!\n");
return 0;
}

What can be done with Objective C?

In theory, a developer who is a master in Objective-C can design any system that can be designed in C on Objective-C. The another good news is that, this developer will be able to design many systems on C++ with Objective-C. But keep in mind that it does not change the fact that Obj-C is an Apple-Oriented programming language.

By learning Objective-C:

Mobile applications and games to be used on iPhone and iPad
Multimedia applications that can be used on tvOS
Software running on macOS
Apps for the watchOS smartwatch system
Static library enhancements
Develop applications for GNUStep
You can develop applications and libraries in many areas such as.

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What is Objective-C?

What is Objective-C?

What can be done with Objective C?

By learning Objective-C:

Written by Mammadowr