Cocoa approachable by non-programmers ?
Cocoa approachable by non-programmers ?
- Subject: Cocoa approachable by non-programmers ?
- From: publiclook <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 21:45:33 -0500
I have noticed a lot of questions that are not so much about Cocoa as
about programming in general. I also notice a lot of questions that are
really C questions rather than Cocoa questions.
Is this a result of the fact that Cocoa is seen as approachable by
non-programmers or is it the result of a culture shift in programming /
education ?
When I was learning to program (really not that long ago), universities
usually used Pascal for introductory courses, but "serious" classes
were taught in C and/or an assembly language. Hobbyist programmers
learned C because it was the only ubiquitous portable language (to the
extent it was portable), and it was necessary to stay close to the
hardware for performance.
Fundamental issues about how a computer works and the use of stack and
calling conventions and interrupt service routines and manual memory
management were introductory material for both the hobbyist and budding
professional. Those topics were necessary to write "real" programs.
Cocoa is built on top of a C foundation for better or worse. I get the
impression that C and systems programming and low level issues like
stack and why is it used are no longer taught or no longer seem
important. For that matter, comparisons of languages and programming
paradigms seems absent.
Is it goal of current culture that all software be written in Java?
I don't really have any information to base my impressions. They are
completely subjective. I actually like Java too. In many/most cases,
the value of portability and easy programming overcome the value of
execution performance and the knowledge of what is really happening.
I guess I just think the the cultural values of Java are opposed to the
(for better or worse) cultural values of C/Objective-C. Java is about
idealized virtual machines and protecting or insulating programmers
from the implementation details of what their code does. C is about
access to the hardware using programming concepts and techniques
supported directly by hardware. In most environments, it is very easy
to visualize the hand full of machine instructions that will be
generated for any particular C statement. C is a super-macro assembler
with a few cross platform features.
Is there any future for Cocoa outside the Java world ? Is the fact
that Cocoa is built on C a fatal flaw ? I don't think it is possible to
build something like Cocoa in Java, and yet the very techniques that
make Cocoa possible (IMHO) may make it unacceptable to a new generation
of programmers who don't know what pointers are.
Is the programming culture really changing so much, or is it just the
expectations of Cocoa newbies that is changing, or are my impressions
off base ?
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