Re: Newbie question
Re: Newbie question
- Subject: Re: Newbie question
- From: Jeff Harrell <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 20:10:53 -0500
On Sunday, June 29, 2003, at 07:52 PM, Rams wrote:
Where would I find documentation for the APIs of these languages?
That's a big question.
First, there's C. For my money, the only two C references worth having
are "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie and "The C
Standard Library" by Plaugher. The first one describes the language and
has a section on the standard library, and the second one is an
in-depth reference for the C standard library.
Then you've got C++. For this, you want "The C++ Programming Language"
by Stroustrup and "The C++ Standard Library" by Josuttis. Exact same
situation as the two C books, only for C++.
How much of the C and C++ standard libraries you use depends on what
kind of programs you write. You can write whole Cocoa programs,
non-trivial ones, without making a single call to the C standard
library, for example. But if you want references to those libraries,
those books are the way to go in my opinion.
For Objective C, the only language reference you need is Apple's. "The
Objective C Programming Language" is available on developer.apple.com:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/
index.html
Objective C's equivalent of the standard library is called Foundation,
and it's documented here:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/Foundation/
ObjC_classic/index.html
Foundation is a lot like the C++ standard library; it provides things
like strings, abstract containers, file I/O, and so on. For programming
with graphical user interfaces, there's Application Kit, or AppKit for
short. AppKit gives you things like windows, buttons, and fancy
scrolling table controls.
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/
ApplicationKit/ObjC_classic/index.html
So, to sum up: there's C, C++, and Objective C. Each has its own
language reference, and its own standard library. In addition,
Objective C has Application Kit for dealing with Mac-specific user
interfaces.
Now, none of these is a tutorial. These are reference documents and
books. Just so you know.
I hoped this told you something helpful. Feel free to email me
privately or to follow-up to the list if you have any other questions,
or if I missed your point completely. (That's something that happens
pretty regularly with me; I'm accustomed to it by now, and it doesn't
bother me. If that's what happened, just say, "You misunderstood,
dummy," and correct me.)
--
email@hidden
http://homepage.mac.com/jharrell
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