Re: References, etc. for learning Cocoa?
Re: References, etc. for learning Cocoa?
- Subject: Re: References, etc. for learning Cocoa?
- From: Lloyd Sargent <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 11:34:02 -0500
On Wednesday, August 15, 2001, at 10:16 AM, Ondra Cada wrote:
Lloyd,
Lloyd Sargent (LS) wrote at Wed, 15 Aug 2001 08:57:54 -0500:
LS> >Well, I guess with ObjC the importance of pointers somewhat
diminished.
LS> >One
LS> >still needs to understand them, but not *THAT* thoroughly.
Actually, I
LS> >can't
LS> >even remember when I used -> last time ;)
LS> Well, again I have to disagree. Since ObjC is built on top of (not
LS> replacing) C, a good foundation in C is required. Part of that
Agreed.
LS> requirement is an understanding of pointers.
...
LS> So you can't TOTALLY ignore pointers
Agreed. Would you perhaps try to read what I've written?
Yes, I did and I agree that they play less of an importance than they
did with straight C. However, having taught C, people tend to get
confused by them, and I think they are important enough to comprehend
fully, rather than possibly ignoring them and missing a key feature of C.
LS> Heck you look at what a pipe is (WHICH is what you pass the Auth
LS> framework)
You mean a NSPipe instance, or are you *OUTSIDE* of ObjC/Cocoa?
Well, is the Authorization Framework considered INSIDE or OUTSIDE requ
the ObjC/Cocoa framework? AuthorizationExecuteWithPrivileges requires
many pointers (one which is a pipe of FILE *). My point is that even
when you WANT to program only in the ObjC/Cocoa framework there are some
API's that won't let you.
LS> However, I still maintain that pointers are your friends. Their
LS> importance is a matter of opinion.
Absolutely agreed. Though, with Cocoa and ObjC, there is no particular
reason to _emphasize them above any other part of the language_ (which
there
probably was in the plain C).
Honestly, I think we agree here more than we disagree. Perhaps my
emphasis on pointers was overly strong, however, until all API's are
accessible from the ObjC/Cocoa universe (which takes time and
engineering resources), we have to assume the lowest common denominator.
Which, in the case of the Authorization functions, means C.
Cheers,
Lloyd
-------
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