Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 13.1
Screenshot of
Ship Attack
.
Objective-C
The Objective-C language was originally developed in the early 1980s with the
goal of adding object-oriented concepts to C. It was developed around roughly
the same time as C++, though at different laboratories by different researches.
Objective-C really was not used very much until NeXT, a company started by
Steve Jobs, licensed the language for their new platform. Although NeXT never
really gained that much popularity, as part of Jobs' return to Apple in 1996, NeXT
came with him. The NeXT operating system was then used as the base for Mac
OS X, and later the iOS operating system. Today, all GUI programs developed for
the Mac and any iOS device must use Objective-C on at least some level.
There are some notable differences been C++ and Objective-C, most notably
Objective-C technically does not have the concept of member functions. Rather,
classes are sent messages and then respond to them—this means that all messages
must be passed and processed dynamically, whereas in C++ member functions are
only dynamic if the virtual keyword is utilized. Even though they aren't technic-
