I still get sad when I think about Objective C and how it didn't take off vs C++ just because it had ugly syntax (which becomes beautiful once you understand why it is the way it is)

[–] bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I’m still mad at Apple for making Swift instead of Objective-C 3.0. It was such a powerful and small language.

C++ has a billion features and Swift is getting more every year.

Objective-C was fast to compile, great in a debugger, and allowed lots of creativity and patching broken system components.

Lots of great software was written with it. CocoaBindings are magical.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why is it the way it is?

[–] entwine@programming.dev 5 points 2 days ago

Both C++ and Objective-C aimed to be "C with classes". C++ does it by hijacking existing syntax (struct), Objective-C does it by adding new syntax, while leaving the original minimalism of C untouched.

In fact, it's a strict superset of C, which means it doesn't change anything at all in C, it only appends. So every valid C program is a valid Objective C program (which is not true for C++).

You know how some C programs are valid C++ programs though? Well, those same programs can use Objective C features too, meaning you're able to use them in C++... Meaning you're able to code in "Objective C++" (which is very common for interop purposes)