How
the Book Is Organized
This book is divided into four chapters and two appendixes.
The chapters are:
- Chapter 2, "Object-Oriented Programming," discusses
the rationale for object-oriented programming languages and introduces
much of the terminology. It develops the ideas behind object-oriented
programming techniques. If you're already familiar with object-oriented
programming and are interested only in Objective-C, you may want
to skip this chapter and go directly to Chapter 3.
- Chapter 3, "The Objective-C Language," describes
the basic concepts and syntax of Objective-C. It covers many of
the same topics as Chapter 2, but looks at them from
the standpoint of the Objective-C language. It reintroduces the
terminology of object-oriented programming, but in the context of
Objective-C.
- Chapter 4, "Objective-C Extensions," concentrates
on two of the principal innovations introduced into the language
as part of Objective-C-categories and protocols. It also takes
up static typing and other aspects of the language.
- Chapter 5, "The Run-Time System," looks
at the NSObject class and how Objective-C programs interact with
the run-time system. In particular, it examines the paradigms for
allocating and initializing new objects, dynamically loading new
classes at run time, and forwarding messages to other objects.
- Chapter 6, "Object Ownership and Automatic Disposal," discusses creating and disposing of other
objects. Usually objects are created for private use and are disposed of
as needed. This chapter specifically examines what happens when
objects are passed around through a method invocation, and who is
responsible for disposal.
The appendixes contain reference material that might be useful
for understanding the language. They are:
© 2001 Apple Computer, Inc.
