objectivec

Objective-C is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to C. It was developed in the early 1980s by Brad Cox and Tom Love and later became the primary language for Apple’s macOS and iOS frameworks after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Objective-C code is commonly used with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks and runs on the Objective-C runtime.

Key features include a dynamic runtime that supports message passing, dynamic typing with the id type, and object-oriented constructs such as categories, protocols, selectors, and properties. It uses square-bracket syntax for sending messages and supports memory management through reference counting, with Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) available to automate retain and release.

In the late 2000s Apple introduced improvements associated with Objective-C 2.0, adding properties, fast enumeration, and enhanced syntax. The language has a long-standing ecosystem centered on Xcode as the primary IDE and the Clang/LLVM compiler. Although Swift is now the preferred language for new Apple platform development, Objective-C remains widely used for maintaining legacy code and for certain frameworks, and it can interoperate with Swift and C/C++.

Beyond Apple platforms, Objective-C has seen limited use, but its dynamic runtime and messaging model influenced subsequent language designs and bridging approaches. The language continues to be officially supported on Apple platforms, with ongoing tooling updates and maintained compatibility within modern development environments.

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