Objective-C Pocket Reference: A Guide to Language Fundamentals

by Andrew Duncan

Overview

Objective-C is an exciting and dynamic approach to C-based object-oriented programming; it's the approach adopted by Apple as the foundation for programming under Mac OS X, a Unix-based operating system gaining wide acceptance among programmers and other technologists. Objective-C is easy to learn and has a simple elegance that is a welcome breath of fresh air after the abstruse and confusing C++. To help you master the fundamentals of this language, you'll want to keep the Objective-C Pocket Reference close at hand. This small book contains a wealth of valuable information to speed you over the learning curve.In this pocket reference, author Andrew Duncan provides a quick and concise introduction to Objective-C for the experienced programmer. In addition to covering the essentials of Objective-C syntax, Andrew also covers important faces of the language such as memory management, the Objective-C runtime, dynamic loading, distributed objects, and exception handling.O'Reilly's Pocket References have become a favorite among programmers everywhere. By providing important details in a succinct, well-organized format, these handy books deliver just what you need to complete the task at hand. When you've reached a sticking point in your work and need to get to a solution quickly, the new Objective-C Pocket Reference is the book you'll want to have.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596552190
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/19/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	130
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Andrew M. Duncan started programming in FORTRAN on Control Data 6600 hardware in 1974, and a quarter century later progressed to Mac OS X. He holds a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and a Masters in mathematics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. He is now on leave from doctoral work on compilers at UC Santa Barbara. He currently works at Expertcity, designing the core class libraries.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
	What Is Objective-C?	3
	Dynamic Dispatch	4
	Dynamic Typing	4
	Dynamic Loading	5
	Which Objective-C?	5
	How Do I Get Started?	6
	Elements of the Language	7
	Objects	7
	Classes	8
	Inheritance and Subtyping	13
	Fields	14
	Methods	16
	Categories	26
	Protocols	29
	Declarations	31
	Predefined Types, Constants, and Variables	34
	Compiler and Preprocessor Directives	37
	Class Declarations and Definitions	37
	Forward Declarations	38
	Expanding Directives	39
	Preprocessor Symbols	43
	Compiler Flags	43
	Remote Messaging	44
	Pointer Parameter Qualifiers	45
	Return Value Qualifiers	46
	Object Qualifiers	46
	Object Lifecycle	46
	Creating an Object	47
	Copying an Object	53
	Deallocating an Object	57
	Runtime Errors	58
	Object Error Handling	58
	Exceptions in Cocoa	60
	Runtime Environment	64
	Class Objects	64
	Metaclass Objects	66
	Selectors	68
	Protocol Objects	69
	Root Classes	69
	Fields	70
	Methods	70
	The Object Class	71
	The NSObject Class	79
	Forwarding Messages	89
	Object Forwarding	90
	NSObject Forwarding	91
	Memory Management	94
	Manual Memory Management	94
	Reference Counting	95
	Garbage Collection	100
	Archiving Objects	100
	Archiving Descendants of Object	101
	Archiving Descendants of NSObject	103
	Key-Value Coding	107
	Access Permissions	107
	NSKeyValueCoding Methods	108
	Handling Key Lookup Failures	111
	Optimizing Method Calls	111
	Objective-C++	113
	Objective-C Resources	114
	Index	116