ObjC API != Cocoa (Re: Another controversial question)
ObjC API != Cocoa (Re: Another controversial question)
- Subject: ObjC API != Cocoa (Re: Another controversial question)
- From: Chris Kane <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 22:52:46 -0700
On Monday, September 3, 2001, at 09:56 AM, <<somebody>> wrote:
[...] the OpenStep API
generally (save an unusually small number of exceptions which prove the
rule) makes truly *A LOT* more sense than other APIs do [...]
Therefore there is so much ranting when some API (like authentification
instead NIAccess, QuickTime instead /never really completed/ NeXTTIME,
etc)
is excluded from Cocoa: that's like you was used to powered tools, and
now
somebody took them from you, saying the plain old hand saw, screwdriver
and
hammer can be used to do the job.
[Not meant to be directed to any persons in particular...]
One thing to keep in mind is that Cocoa corresponds mostly to what was
in OpenStep. NeXT had many bits of ObjC API that weren't part of
OpenStep, and aren't part of Cocoa today. (EOF is another example,
which was probably omitted from above to avoid restarting the usual
flame fest.) Many/most groups at NeXT produced an ObjC API for their
bit of software, software not managed by the AppKit/Foundation
group(s). If those same groups (where they still exist) still wanted to
produce those same bits of software (and it was going to be part of the
product) with an ObjC API, they probably could (that is, ObjC is still
around).
It [Cocoa != ObjC API] probably gets fuzzy here when the main big ObjC
API left is only Cocoa; then, people begin to equate them.
In many cases those folks have "turned over", and new groups have been
told to produce something developers can use. When Carbon and Cocoa
developers are your audience, the common factor is C. These new groups
could also use ObjC (and may be), but it's simpler to produce one API
rather than N different forms of it (I very much wonder if there'd be
bits of Foundation available from Java if I didn't have to),
particularly when pressed for time. But IB's API is still an ObjC one,
and if you're writing a system pref panel or screen saver you use ObjC.
There's an ObjC API to OpenGL. More may follow in time.
Chris Kane
Cocoa Frameworks, Apple