The Objective-C Programming Language

[Nytro]

The Objective-C Programming Language

Introduction

The Objective-C language is a simple computer language designed to enable sophisticated object-oriented programming. Objective-C is defined as a small but powerful set of extensions to the standard ANSI C language. Its additions to C are mostly based on Smalltalk, one of the first object-oriented programming languages. Objective-C is designed to give C full object-oriented programming capabilities, and to do so in a simple and straightforward way.

Most object-oriented development environments consist of several parts:

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An object-oriented programming language

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A library of objects

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A suite of development tools

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A runtime environment

This document is about the first component of the development environment—the programming language. It fully describes the version of the Objective-C language released in Mac OS X v10.6 and iOS 4.0. This document also provides a foundation for learning about the second component, the Objective-C application frameworks—collectively known as Cocoa. The runtime environment is described in a separate document, Objective-C Runtime Programming Guide.

Who Should Read This Document

The document is intended for readers who might be interested in:

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Programming in Objective-C

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Finding out about the basis for the Cocoa application frameworks

This document both introduces the object-oriented model that Objective-C is based upon and fully documents the language. It concentrates on the Objective-C extensions to C, not on the C language itself.

Because this isn’t a document about C, it assumes some prior acquaintance with that language. Object-oriented programming in Objective-C is, however, sufficiently different from procedural programming in ANSI C that you won’t be hampered if you’re not an experienced C programmer.

Organization of This Document

The following chapters cover all the features Objective-C adds to standard C.

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“Objects, Classes, and Messaging”

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“Defining a Class”

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“Allocating and Initializing Objects”

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“Protocols”

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“Declared Properties”

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“Categories and Extensions”

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“Associative References”

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“Fast Enumeration”

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“Enabling Static Behavior”

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“Selectors”

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“Exception Handling”

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“Threading”

A glossary at the end of this document provides definitions of terms specific to Objective-C and object-oriented programming.

Online:

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/Introduction/introObjectiveC.html