Comments on: Developing iPhone Applications – 5 things you should know

By: Developing iPhone Application - Memory Management | Summa Blog

Developing iPhone Application - Memory Management | Summa Blog — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:11:45 +0000

[...] Memory management is core to any programming language, and it is always easier when you need not worry about it, like in Java or SmallTalk. But the ability to manage your own memory is a powerful aspect of Objective-C programming. When used correctly, Objective-C’s memory management using the retain/releases commands runs smoother and faster than Java’s garbage collection although it does place a much larger burden on the developer and introduces a much larger risk of memory leaks. As long as you strictly follow the simple rule, ‘You must take responsibility for releasing (i.e. de-allocating) any object that you have allocated or retained’, memory handling should be fine in Objective-C. Some background in handling memory elsewhere (like using malloc/free in C) can help expedite your learning but be aware of some interesting Objective-C specific syntax and concepts (read here). [...]

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:39:01 +0000

Just as a response to several comments, it was definitely not my intent to scare anyone away from Objective C, or to put it down in reference to Java or C#. I was merely trying to point out some pretty major differences that developers from those languages may find a little difficult to grasp at first. I think that Objective C is a very good languages with quite a few upsides that would be nice to have in other languages.

By: grensley

grensley — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:24:27 +0000

*shudder* now i don’t want to do it.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:17:12 +0000

Moo.

By: Rudi Angela

Rudi Angela — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:26:28 +0000

You make it sound as if the Obj-C makers have reused the term ‘interface’ in a different way than what is common. But there you forget that this term was already in use long before Java was born, to denote the interface of a specific software module or: how to talk to that piece of software.
The Java makers took that term to denote a more abstract concept. A kind of contract to which two sides should agree: the user of that interface on one side and a software implementation at the other side. A common word for such a ‘contract’ is ‘protocol’. So, after all, not bad names for the concepts they denote.

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:28:51 +0000

Note from editor/writer… Jim, nice catch. The property would be accessed simply with the name, minus the get. I think it shows my point that this is a definite gotcha for Java developers.

By: Jim Connell

Jim Connell — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:17:32 +0000

This is a great list of major differences for Java/C# programmers. Those 5 were the same I found to be most different from Java as well.

I wanted to call out one inaccuracy in section one. Properties define accessors and mutators slightly differently than is typical in Java — the accessors are not prepended with “get”. In your example, the standard way for a property called Name is:

accessor: [myObject name] or myObject.Name
mutator: [myObject setName:aName] or myObject.Name = aName

Also as you’re aware, camelCase is preferred for property names.

By: iphone programming

iphone programming — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:10:18 +0000

Great points. Well written. Concise! If readers would like to delve deeper into the iPhone Programming topics, then do have a look at the iPhone Training Program offered by the folks over at EDUmobile.ORG . You will master the iPhone SDK within 10 to 12 weeks flat, after which you can start putting your iPhone Apps on the App store! They’ve got a special promo code going now that will give you 25% off, you just need to Google it for now to get it… its floating around somewhere ($50 off)…

By: Martha Habich

Martha Habich — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:43:29 +0000

Well written article. Thanks for the tips!!!

By: Narinder Bansal

Narinder Bansal — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:23:40 +0000

Nice Article. Your 5 points are mantras for a developer from java platform shifting to objective C. Dont know why objecitve C completely different from other languages. And no garbage collection for iPhone is big headache. Hope they will find a solution sooner or later. Thumbs up to this blog

By: Sam Griffith Jr.

Sam Griffith Jr. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:05:32 +0000

There are private and protected instance variables. Additionally you can declare a private interface inside your implementation file (.m) and those methods will be private essentially. You can read more here:

http://macdevelopertips.com/objective-c/private-methods.html