Mac OS programming

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
What is the language that most programs for OS X use? What would be the best to learn if I plan on programming for Mac OS in the future? Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    Depends what you want to program, but in general I suggest you learn Cocoa and Objective C.
  • Reply 2 of 5
    lundylundy Posts: 4,466member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by eekles77

    What is the language that most programs for OS X use? What would be the best to learn if I plan on programming for Mac OS in the future? Thanks.



    If you don't already know C, start with that.



    Then Objective-C.



    With that base to fall back on, you can use Xcode for C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, assembler, Java, AppleScript, and others. And with Xcode you won't get left behind when Apple updates things in the move to Intel.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by lundy

    you can use Xcode for C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, assembler, Java, AppleScript, and others. And with Xcode you won't get left behind when Apple updates things in the move to Intel.



    Minor correction: you should ignore Assembler in light of Apple switching to another processor architecture.



    IMHO, you need to start with C because it is the common base for C++, C# and Obj-C, which are supersets. It's impossible to program, for example, in C++ without being able to write in plain C.



    Oh, and don't even think about BASIC.
  • Reply 4 of 5
    C/C++, Java. Use an IDE like CodeWarrior (it's what I used in college). Oh, and you *really* should take a class on basic programming (turns out that programming is not straightforward on ANY level).



    http://www.metrowerks.com/mw/default.htm
  • Reply 5 of 5
    I guess you could start with Objective-C and Apple's Tutorials. They're very straightforward and you get an idea what it's all about.



    If you start with C first, bear in mind that it's a very low level language and its concepts are sometimes rather hard to grasp for people new to programming. I guess Objectiv-C would be a better approach.



    The best approach imho would be learning Smalltalk. But that's another story. ;-)
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