Introduction to C

Objective-C is the language of native iOS develoment. Objective-C is a strict superset of the C language. C was developed in the early 70s as a "portable assembler." It is a relatively small, simple language that exposes much of how the computer actually works. There are a few implications of being a strict superset of the C language

Advantages

• No need for FFI, we can use all existing C code as-is, i.e zlib, readline, and OpenGL.
• Direct access to the hardware when you absolutely need it
• The language used in all of Apple's 'Core' frameworks: CoreImage, CoreVideo, CoreGraphics, CoreAudio, CoreLocation, CoreMotion, dear god it's worse than iThingies.

Disadvantages

• Gives you enough rope to hang yourself with
• Objective-C can be held back by the slower moving C standard, for example the lack of namespaces.

Objective-C takes the C language as is, using the same syntax for functions, variables and flow control while adding it's own syntax for dynamic object oriented programing. We'll begin by studying these features