Re: Objective-C Specification
Re: Objective-C Specification
- Subject: Re: Objective-C Specification
- From: Dennis De Mars <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 19:12:35 -0700
On Sunday, June 9, 2002, at 04:57 PM, Josh Aas wrote:
Thanks for the replies. I hadn't thought to look in the Appendix
folder. I'd
like clarification on what you mean by Apple "owning" Obj-C; if gcc can
hand
To be precise, the term "Objective-C" is a trademark that was owned by
NeXT at the time that company was purchased by Apple. "Objective-C" is
now a trademark owned by Apple. I don't think that has anything to do
with rights to the language itself, although technically Apple could
require that any documentation referring to the language contain a
mention that "Objective-C" is a registered trademark of Apple Computer.
Obj-C code, then how can Apple "own" the language? Also, C was in
trouble
before the ISO/ANSI standard - is Obj-C in for the same ride? Apple has
been
making lots of improvements to gcc lately and I hope that work is
benefiting
the community. Does anyone know Apple's plans for the language? Will it
be
gcc is covered by the GNU public license and Apple's improvements are
generally available to the public at no charge. Some of these
improvements would not be useful to other platforms, but others are. For
instance, reviving Objective-C++ makes the use of Objective-C much more
practical for those who have to interface with extensive existing C++
code.
pushed on other platforms at all? Thanks again in advance.
-Josh
Apple doesn't actively promote the use of the language on other
platforms. I think they have their hands full promoting the language to
their own developers! The most significant project I know of that uses
Objective-C on other platforms is GNUStep, which is an open source
library based on the NeXTStep/OpenStep library. Since a goal of this
project is to be as compatible as possible with Cocoa, it would
therefore facilitate porting Cocoa applications to other platforms.
Unless and until Apple decides this would be strategically advantageous
to Macintosh (they apparently don't currently believe that it would) I
wouldn't expect them to actively support this project. On the other hand
I don't think they've done anything to actively impede it either.
On the general subject of Objective-C standards, I would expect Apple to
be an important participant in any future efforts to standardize the
language. I don't think it is up to them unilaterally to establish such
a standard that would apply to all platforms. Similar efforts (by
Microsoft for example with C# and .NET) are usually viewed with some
suspicion. The logical thing would be for Apple to get together with
interested parties representing other vendors and other interested
parties on a committee to establish a standard, but for this to happen
there would have to be sufficient interest from other non-Apple parties.
I don't think there is currently enough interest in non-Apple quarters
for this to happen, and I don't think it is up to Apple to attempt to
stir up that kind of interest on other platforms.
Usually the way these things work is that usage of a language reaches a
level on several platform, with several non-compatible compilers, that a
standardization effort becomes necessary and desirable. It is only at
this stage that the effort required to work through a standardization
process is justifiable. Objective-C is not currently at that stage
because most existing Objective-C users are programming Cocoa on OS X,
and the majority of the rest of them are probably using gcc anyway.
- Dennis D.
On Monday, June 10, 2002, at 12:17 am, Josh Aas wrote:
1. Is there an ISO and/or ANSI standard for Objectiv-C?
No. I think that Apple "owns" Objective C. NeXT acquired from StepStone
all the rights to the Objective C language and the Objective C
trademark
in 1995. StepStone is (was?) the company of Brad Cox, inventor of
Objective C.
2. Where are the exact specifications for the language (the likes of
which
could be used to write a compiler, not that I intend to).
The Reference Manual for the Objective-C Language can be found at:
file:///Developer/Documentation/Cocoa/ObjectiveC/AppendixB/index.html
Marco Scheurer
Sen:te, Lausanne, Switzerland http://www.sente.ch
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