Re: Does anybody program in Java?!?!
Re: Does anybody program in Java?!?!
- Subject: Re: Does anybody program in Java?!?!
- From: Scott Stevenson <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 20:42:08 -0700
On Oct 11, 2004, at 5:33 PM, Stephen Vogelpohl wrote:
In pursuit to the answer of the question I posted previously, I've
noticed that hardly anyone answers java questions. Does that mean
hardly anybody programs in java and chooses objective C instead? I
can't believe that to be the case. So why is it that (seemingly) none
of the java related questions get answered? And if it is true, why is
objective C a better way to go then Java?
There is potential for emotional responses on this topic, but I'll try
to share some brief insight without getting into any of that.
When I first started playing around with Cocoa, I had a very similar
question. I was wondering why should I take the time to learn
Objective-C when I could just use Java?
The answer is that Cocoa and Objective-C have a symbiotic relationship
that Java just can't compete with due to a difference in design
philosophy. The more dynamic, loosely-typed nature of Objective-C is
utilized in Apple's frameworks, and nets you a substantial amount of
rather elegant solutions to common programming problems. In other
words, you just get more out of Cocoa by using ObjC.
The reasons for this might not be clear as you are just starting with
very simple programs, however. It's also not immediately obvious to
experienced Java or C++ programmers, who are used to framing problems
in terms of those languages, and find themselves doing a lot of
unnecessary manual labor.
Objective-C is a very small language. It's quite easy to learn if you
already know Java. We're talking maybe a day or two. And the time
investment is minimal compared to the time that will be spent on
learning Cocoa itself. There are situations where Java makes more
sense, but I personally think this is more the exception.
I have no particular reason to have a bias towards Objective-C, I never
really used OpenStep and I learned Java first. But I'm very glad I took
the time to learn ObjC right from the beginning. If you're leaning away
from it because you don't know C all that well, take a look at this
ansi C tutorial I put together:
http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000081.php
If you want a less steep learning curve or just want to build quick
prototypes, also consider something like PyObjC.
http://pyobjc.sourceforge.net/
Hope this helps,
- Scott
--
http://treehouseideas.com/
http://theobroma.treehouseideas.com/ [blog]
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