Is Objective C an Apple language or can you run Objective C on other platforms like linux?
Objective-C is not an OS X/iOS specific language, eg. the GCC has its own, non Apple, ObjC runtime that also works on Linux (not sure about LLVM, but I guess they have their own runtime too).
However, the complete library (Cocoa, UIkit, etc) are Apple only. You will have to write your own NSObject and all subclasses if you want to use them (or use the GNUStep library for this).
You can run it on Linux using GNUStep and GCC as the compiler. By the way you will not be able to use a full Cocoa environment as a framework. Have a look at this compatibility list of AppKit
While it's that the language can be compiled and run on multiple other platforms (as others have said), in practice it's almost exclusively used for Mac OS X and iOS development.
Also checkout Cocotron.
Related
I'd like to ask if gnustep's toolchain is appropriate for netbsd development where one'd normally use plain C. I'm interested in the benefits of Obj-C only with basic APIs like NSObject's reference counting and dynamic stuff.
My question is twofold:
is gcc's Obj-C ABI compatible with gcc's C ABI? so that I can use regular C libraries
is Obj-C's runtime layer good to go where netbsd targets embedded?
Thank you in advance!
is gcc's Obj-C ABI compatible with gcc's C ABI? so that I can use regular C libraries?
This has nothing to do with the ABI at first glance. Objective-C is a strict superset of C, so it's true on every platform that you can use C code with Objective-C code. You can even call Objective-C methods from plain C code using the Objective-C runtime library.
is Obj-C's runtime layer good to go where netbsd targets embedded?
I don't exactly see what the question is here. Are you asking whether it is possible to port GNUstep to embedded platforms? If so, I'd say yes, it should normally be possible (with the appropriate constraints of an embedded system), but in my opinion, it's too heavyweight for embedded development.
If you aren't interested by AppKit, you may also take a look at https://webkeks.org/objfw/.
Runtimes may contain assembly bits that you will want to verify that they will actually work on specific CPU type. Old Foundation library like libFoundation may also suite your needs. If you want to use thing like Objective-C++ or Objective-C 2.0, I'd recommend clang instead of gcc.
Is the gnu objective c compiler for windows the same as the compiler for Mac OS X (and Ipad)?
I want to write some code on windows and run it on the mac and ipad, objective C seems to be the best way to go for the Mac/Ipad but is the gnu compiler the same? I know the libraries cocoa etc are not available but this is not an issue we'll be writing different interface code for each platform (please no comments about this is not the right way etc).
tia,
Dave
The compiler is more or less the same, but the runtime systems are different. If you don’t use the new features from Objective-C 2.0 your code should work fine with both runtime systems. If you want to use the new features you have to use a different runtime. You can find more information here on the GNUstepWiki.
But you still need a framework that provides basic objects like strings, arrays, dictionaries and so on. You could use this part from The Cocotron, a framework that tries to make all of Cocoa available on Windows, Linux and other platforms.
If you are not developing for an Apple platform, are there reasons to choose Objective-C? I know of GNUstep (which I do not find visually pleasing), but what else is there?
If you want to develop for multiple platforms, including OS X or iOS but also Linux or Windows, when might Objective-C be a good choice?
Outside Apple, The only major Objective-C environment is GNUSTEP/Windowmaker.
It's a shame, since Objective-C is a much nicer and saner language than C++.
Take a look at Cocotron, which is a port of Cocoa to Windows. If the Mac is your main target, this may be a way to get Windows as well. But, Apple platforms are the best place for ObjC -- if you aren't targeting Apple, I wouldn't use it.
There is The Cocotron
Clozure Common Lisp (CCL) on 32-bit Windows platforms now includes experimental support for the Cocoa frameworks using the Cocotron open source project.
I'd like to give Objective-C a try in game programming. The problem is I'd need some tools and libraries for this.
First thing that comes into mind I need is the GUI and graphics library.
What choices do I have?
There are Four non Mac implementations of OpenStep/Cocoa type Objective C platforms:
OpenStep/NextStep : Openstep/NeXT support machines only - Discontinued.
p..... can remember name or find it on web - it's out there somewhere ! - Linux
Cocotron - Windows only
GNUStep Linux/Windows
GNUSTep is the way to go for Linux... I mention there others because 2 and 3 are available in source and they can be used to patch holes in code the GNUStep doesn't have and they might.
When it comes to Graphics library - you may have problems because Apple moved away from the old OpenStep APIs and has kept evolving their APIs far faster than the GNUStep people can play catch up. There is no support for the latest graphics libraries such as Core Animation.
As Objective C is C and C++ friendly you can use any of these libraries as is, or by making the Objective C friendly by making a wrapper.
You may or may not want to be Mac compatible and do versions for that so it may not be important.
If you do you might want to do a Linux Wrapper for something like OpenGL if it is missing, which I think it is but have a check yourself....
There are Linux development tools including a project IDE and GUI builder for GNUStep on Linux.
Tony
I believe you're asking for GNUStep.
SDL is a C library which is popular for game programming.
If you're looking for Foundation/AppKit stuff you can also look at Cocotron. I've never tried it though.
Supporting SDL there are Objective-C bindings here. However since Objective-C is a thin OO layer on top of C you can use most of the existing C libs for game development, SDL, Clanlib, etc...
I do not have a Mac, or an iPhone. However, the concept of taking C and making it more dynamic towards the idea of smalltalk, python or ruby is really attractive to me. I'd love to start on objective C.
Is objective C just a syntax superset of C or is it really like C. As in, can it be compiled with gcc etc..?
I do most of my programming in Ruby. Objective C seems so much more forgiving than C. You can write native extensions for Ruby in C. Can you write native extensions for Ruby in Objective C?
How can I get started with Objective C outside of owning an Mac/iPhone and having XCode?
Wikipedia says
Today it is used primarily on Apple's
Mac OS X and iPhone OS, two
environments based on, although not
compliant with, the OpenStep standard,
and it is the primary language used
for Apple's Cocoa API though it was
originally used as the main language
on NeXT's NeXTSTEP OS. Generic
Objective-C programs which do not make
use of these libraries can also be
compiled for any system supported by
gcc, which includes an Objective-C
compiler.
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
or GNUstep.
Maybe you should get a Linux vm if you are mainly running Windows and get GNUStep running.
apple contributed the objective c changes back to gcc (not that they had much choice, being GPL). So wherever you can set up gcc, you can set up an objective-c compiler.
Beyond that, the Gnustep environment can give you a bit of the flavor of the original OpenStep/NextStep environment.
Yes, you can write, compile and run objective c programs outside a MAC/IPhone
Please check the link below for details
http://www.otierney.net/objective-c.html#settingup
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/Objective-C/faq/
There's a difference between Objective-C the language, and the frameworks that Apple has built on top of it. Those frameworks consist of a bunch of objects which you can use in your code and are especially helpful if you're targeting the Mac or the iPhone. There are some similar objects for parts of it in GNUStep, but it's not a complete replacement for the Cocoa/etc library and especially doesn't cover anything iPhone related.
GNUStep and the Objective-C language (via gcc) are available for many platforms, and you can write your own programs that use Objective-C objects and interact with any C api from Objective-C.
Objective-C is a superset of C and so is not really more forgiving than C, but it is arguably more forgiving than C++ (an almost-superset of C). You can also mix Objective-C and C++ with GCC but that gets a little complicated, especially regarding exception handling.
For getting started and playing around with the language though, GNUStep and GCC would be a good way to go.
I don't see any compelling reason why you cannot use Objective C for native ruby extensions, except that you won't benefit much. You will still have to use the lower level C Api calls, since as far as i know, there aren't any ruby to objective-c bindings. Additionally, Objective C comes with a fairly substantial library of utility classes that, while helpful, won't easily justify their size and weight in the context of a ruby extension.
You can you this page for simple experiments with ObjC: http://www.codesign.cz/LearnObjC/