from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
Objective C
<language> An {object-oriented} superset of {ANSI C} by Brad
Cox, Productivity Products. Its additions to {C} are few and
are mostly based on {Smalltalk}. Objective C is implemented
as a {preprocessor} for {C}. Its {syntax} is a superset of
standard C syntax, and its {compiler} accepts both C and
Objective C {source code} ({filename extension} ".m").
It has no operator {overloading}, {multiple inheritance}, or
{class variables}. It does have {dynamic binding}. It is
used as the system programming language on the {NeXT}. As
implemented for {NEXTSTEP}, the Objective C language is fully
compatible with {ANSI C}.
Objective C can also be used as an extension to {C++}, which
lacks some of the possibilities for {object-oriented design}
that {dynamic typing} and {dynamic binding} bring to Objective
C. C++ also has features not found in Objective C.
Versions exist for {MS-DOS}, {Macintosh}, {VAX}/{VMS} and
{Unix} {workstations}. Language versions by {Stepstone},
{NeXT} and {GNU} are slightly different.
There is a library of ({GNU}) Objective C {objects} by
R. Andrew McCallum <[email protected]> with similar
functionality to {Smalltalk}'s Collection objects. It
includes: Set, {Bag}, {Array}, LinkedList, LinkList,
CircularArray, {Queue}, {Stack}, {Heap}, SortedArray,
MappedCollector, GapArray and DelegateList. Version: Alpha
Release. (ftp://iesd.auc.dk/pub/ObjC/).
See also: {Objectionable-C}.
["Object-Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach", Brad
Cox, A-W 1986].
(1999-07-10)