Cocoa (API): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:43, 12 August 2008

Revision as of 15:06, 29 August 2008

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<!-- Deleted image removed: [[image:Cocoa dev screenshot.png|thumb|right|200px|A Cocoa application being developed using [[Xcode]]. [[Interface Builder]] windows are also visible.]] -->

'''Cocoa''' is [[Apple Inc.]]'s native [[object-oriented]] application program environment for the [[Mac OS X]] [[operating system]]. It is one of five major [[Application programming interface|API]]s available for Mac OS X; the others are [[Carbon (API)|Carbon]], [[Macintosh Toolbox|Toolbox]] (for the obsolete [[Classic (Mac OS X)|Classic]] environment), [[POSIX]] (for the [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]] environment), and [[Java platform|Java]]. (Environments such as [[Perl]] and [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]] are considered minor environments because they are not generally used for full-fledged application programming.)

Cocoa applications are typically developed using the development tools provided by Apple, specifically [[Xcode]] (formerly [[Project Builder]]) and [[Interface Builder]], using the [[Objective-C]] language. However, the Cocoa programming environment can be accessed using other tools, such as [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]], [[Python (programming language)|Python]], [[Perl]] and [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]], with the aid of bridging mechanisms such as [[PasCocoa]], [[PyObjC]], [[CamelBones]] and [[RubyCocoa]], respectively. It is also possible to write Objective-C Cocoa programs in a simple [[text editor]] and build it manually with [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] or [[GNUstep]]'s [[makefile]] scripts.