Object Oriented Programming

Objective-C

Presentation by Kevin Layer

CS 331
21 April 2008
Overview
 Objective-C is an object oriented language.
 follows ANSI C style coding with methods
from Smalltalk
 There is no formal written standard
 Relies mostly on libraries written by others
 Flexible almost everything is done at runtime.
 Dynamic Binding
 Dynamic Typing
 Dynamic Linking
Inventors
 Objective-C was invented by two men,
Brad Cox and Tom Love.
 Both were introduced to Smalltalk at ITT
in 1981
 Cox thought something like Smalltalk
would be very useful to application
developers
 Cox modified a C compiler and by 1983
he had a working Object-oriented
extension to C called OOPC.
Development
 Tom Love acquired a commercial copy
of Smalltalk-80 while working for
Schlumberger Research
 With direct access Smalltalk, Love
added more to OOPC making the final
product, Objective-C.
 In 1986 they release Objective-C
through their company “Stepstone”
NeXT and NeXTSTEP
 In 1988 Steve Jobs acquires Objective-
C license for NeXT
 Used Objective-C to build the
NeXTSTEP Operating System
 Objective-C made interface design for
NeXTSTEP much easier
 NeXTSTEP was derived from BSD Unix
 In 1995 NeXT gets full rights to
Objective-C from Stepstone
OPENSTEP API
 Developed in 1993 by NeXT and Sun
 An effort to make NeXTSTEP-like
Objective-C implementation available to
other platforms.
 In order to be OS independent
 Removed dependency on Mach Kernel
 Made low-level data into classes
 Paved the way for Mac OS X, GNUstep
Apple and Mac OS X
 NeXT is taken over by Apple in 1996
and put Steve Jobs and his Objective-C
libraries to work
 Redesigned Mac OS to use objective-C
similar to that of NeXTSTEP
 Developed a collection of libraries
named “Cocoa” to aid GUI development
 Release Mac OS X (ten), which was
radically different than OS 9, in March
2001
The Cocoa API
 Primarily the most frequently used
frameworks nowadays.
 Developed by Apple from NeXTSTEP and
OPENSTEP
 Has a set of predefined classes and types
such as NSnumber, NSstring, Nsdate, etc.
 NS stands for NeXT-sun
 Includes a root class NSObject where words
like alloc, retain, and release come from
Dynamic Language
 Almost everything is done at runtime
 Uses dynamic typing, linking, and
binding
 This allows for greater flexibility
 Minimizes RAM and CPU usage
To Import or Include?

#import head.h

 C/C++’s #include will insert head.h into

the code even if its been added before.
 Obj-C’s #import checks if head.h has
been imported beforehand.
Messages
 Almost every object manipulation is
done by sending objects a message
 Two words within a set of brackets, the
object identifier and the message to
send.
[Identifier message ]

 Because of dynamic binding, the

message and receiver are joined at
runtime
Basic syntax structure

C++ syntax
void function(int x, int y, char z);
Object.function(x, y, z);

Objective-C syntax
-(void) function:(int)x, (int)y, (char)z;
[Object function:x, y, z];
Keyword: id
 The word ‘id’ indicates an identifier for
an object much like a pointer in c++
 This uses dynamic typing
 For example, if Pen is a class…

extern id Pen;
id myPen;
myPen = [Pen new ];
(Cox, 59)
Memory Allocation
 Objects are created dynamically
through the keyword, “alloc”
 Objects are dynamically deallocated
using the words “release” and
“autorelease”
 autorelease dealocates the object once
it goes out of scope.
 NOTE: None of these words are built-in
Ownership
 Objects are initially owned by the id that
created them.
 Like C++ pointers, multiple IDs can use
the same object.
 However, like in C++ if one ID releases
the object, then any remaining pointers
will be referencing invalid memory.
 A method like “retain” can allow the
object to stay if one ID releases it.
Prototyping functions
 When declaring or implementing
functions for a class, they must begin
with a + or -
 + indicates a “class method” that can
only be used by the class itself. In other
words, they’re for private functions.
 - indicates “instance methods” to be
used by the client program (public
functions).
Class Declaration (Interface)
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
@interface Node : NSObject { node.h
Node *link;
int contents;
}
+(id)new;
-(void)setContent:(int)number;
-(void)setLink:(Node*)next;
-(int)getContent;
-(Node*)getLink;
@end
Class Definition (Implementation)
#import "node.h”
@implementation Node
+(id)new
node.m
{ return [Node alloc];}
-(void)setContent:(int)number
{contents = number;}
-(void)setLink:(Node*)next {
[link autorelease];
link = [next retain];
}
-(int)getContent
{return contents;}
-(Node*)getLink
{return link;}
@end
 C++ VS. Objective-C
 Adds OOP,  Only adds OOP to C
metaprogramming  Has no standard
and generic library; is dependant
programming to C on other libraries
 Comes with a std  Mostly used for
library application building
 Has numerous uses  Simpler way of
 Large and complex handling classes
code for OOP and objects
Objective-C 2.0
 In October 2007, Apple Inc. releases
Objective-C 2.0 for Mac OS 10.5
(Leopard)
 Adds automatic garbage collection
 Instance Methods (public functions) are
defined differently using @property
linkList class linkList.m

#import "linkList.h" -(void)append:(int)value {

@implementation linkList id last = [head getLink];
while ([last getLink] != nil)
+(id)new {last = [last getLink];}
{return [linkList alloc];} id temp = [Node new];
-(void)insert:(int)value { [temp setContent:value];
id temp = [Node new]; [last setLink:temp];
[temp release];
[temp setContent:value]; }
[temp setLink:head]; -(void)remove {
head = [temp retain]; id temp = head;
[temp release]; head = [head getLink];
[temp release];
} }
-(int)getValue {
return [head getContent];}
@end
Stack class
#import "linkList.h”
@interface Stack : linkList #import "stack.h”
{}
+(id)new; @implementation Stack
-(void)push:(int)value; +(id)new
-(int)pop; {return [Stack alloc];}
@end
-(void)push:(int)value
{[self insert:value];}

-(int)pop {
int ret = [self getValue];
[self remove];
return ret;
}
stack.h stack.m
@end
Example: main.c
#import "stack.h”
int main(){
Stack *s = [Stack new]; main.c
[s push:1];
[s push:2];
printf("%d\t", [s pop]);
[s push:3];
printf("%d\t", [s pop]);
printf("%d\t", [s pop]);
[s release];
return 0;
}

$ gcc -x objective-c node.m linkList.m stack.m main.c -framework Cocoa -o

stackTest
$./stackTest
2 3 1
References
 Cox, Brad. Object Oriented Programming: an
Evolutioary Approach
 Sebesta, Robert. Concepts of Programming
Languages
 Apple Inc. Apple Developer Connection
http://developer.apple.com
 Stevenson, Scott. Theocacao
http://theocacao.com/document.page/510
 Various Authors. Wikipedia: the Free
Encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org