Mac Programming Language

I have three questions:
1.) What programming language does the average mac program use?
2.) Can anyone post an example script for this language?
3.) Can anyone post a link to an XCode usable by OS 10.3.9? All that I can find are the OS 10.4 editions.
Thanks

Hi Hunter,
You can choose between a couple of languages which are all used regularly. RealBasic is one (not supported by XCode) , AppleScript is an easy to learn and quite powerful scripting language from Apple, Java another one which is platform independent (more or less) and finally, the native Coca OS X language, Objective-C / Cocoa which is used for most applications written for Apple OS X.
You find examples on Apples Developer pages, a good starting point is here: Sample Code
Volker

Similar Messages

What programming language should a beginner use for developing apps for mac and I phone etc

Hi all
I have just made the transition from pc to mac, years a go I dabbled in visual basic and was going to give it another go but having made the move to mac, now owning an iMac/ iPhone and iPad I am now thinking I would be better off learning a programming language that would enable me to create program's /apps for apple products. Can someone please point me in the right direction.

If you want to develop apps natively, you'll have to go with Objective-C (language), Xcode (IDE), and the Cocoa Touch libraries. Objective-C is a super-set of C. So, if you've no background in C, start there. In fact, here are three books I recommend:
Dave Mark, Learn C on the Mac:
http://www.amazon.com/Learn-C-Mac-Dave-Mark/dp/1430218096
Aaron Hillegass, Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide:
http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/objective-c_programming_the_big_nerd_ranch_guid e
Joe Conway & Aaron Hillegass, iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (3rd Edition):
http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/ios_programming_the_big_nerd_ranch_guide_rd_edi tion_
Dave Mark's book covers C, and you probably don't need all of it. Once it gets to really elaborate storage issues (for which you'll end up using Core Data on iOS), you can skim. On the up side, you have some programming experience, which will make learning C easier. On the downside, it's in VB, which isn't as similar to C as most other languages are. But, it's a start.
Hillegass covers some basic C in his book on Objective C as well. So you might can start with that. The final book only touches on Objective-C lightly and is really about using the iOS frameworks to do real work. It's entirely project based and will get to you building things and testing them and really creating iOS apps.

Large applications - Labview and other programming languages

Hello Labview Users,
as the forum saw this very interesting thread about large applications programmed in Labview
(see: http://sine.ni.com/niforum/niforum?requireLogin=False&forumDU=http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?... ) I would like to ask the community about their experiences with Labview applications in combination with other programming languages.
In advance: I have several years of experience in programming Labview applications starting from quick-and-dirty solutions which had to run within few hours and complex test solutions. I saw Labview growing and becoming better with the released versions and lot of things I missed in former times got implemented in the meantime. Actually I have to develop a complexe ATE solution with numerous equipment to control and numerous data to be captured and archived. Despite the Verison 8 I still feel still some drawbacks of the LV concept which let me hestitate to setup the solution completly in Labview:
1) It is alway hard to re-use code of complex applications since it is not possible to do some kind of global search an replace of functions
variables etc. It nearly impossible to re-use approved code structures (e.g a state machine) if the "inner part" is changing more the a little bit.
2) If the application requires a certain flexibility (e.g. exchangeable test equipment of varying vendors) this is hard to implement since you have to define a lot of parameters through your hierarchy if you dont want use global variables which slow down your application and hide
the code functionality.
3) Despite modern PCs the look and feel of LV applications appears somewhat slow compared to other applications. For complex user interfaces the polling methode generates a lot of complex code. (I dont have expierence with the event-structure).
Now my questions:
Do you have experience of implemention of complex solutions dividingthe code modules using Labview and other languages? Which other
languages did you use? Why did you use these languages (speed, flexibility of text based code, available library functions)? Did you found out this to improve your development time and code maintainibility?
(I concider a solution where I do the single tests with Labview-VIs but delegate all the test sequencing and data collection stuff written in PERL which allows really very compact code)
I'm curious what your experiences are.
rainercats

Given that you're asking these questions in a forum for LabVIEW users the opinions given are going to be somewhat slanted towards the general like of LabVIEW. I've been working with LabVIEW for a long time, ever since 2.something on a Mac. I've written numerous large-scale applications as well as "mundane" instrument drivers. As you've noted you're experienced with LabVIEW, so you know some of its strengths and weaknesses.
To address your specific questions:
(1) Yes, that has always been a limitation in LabVIEW, but I don't believe it is an overriding one to choose C over LabVIEW. Putnam provided one workaround for the search and replace of VIs. Once you've programmed in LabVIEW long enough you get used to doing it this way. Is it clumsy? Yes. As for the re-use of code structures, that's not entirely true. You can create a "template" VI (a regular VI, not a .vit) that contains the code you want to re-use and place in your palette with the "Merge VI" option set. That way you can select it from your functions palette, plop it down on your diagram, and you get the "template" VI's diagram placed right into your new VI.
(2) This is not something that is specific to LabVIEW, as this exists with any programming language. It's not the language that limits you here, it's how you've designed your code. In a language like C++ you would go with classes. You can do the same thing in LabVIEW. IVI is another option (though not preferred by me).
(3) As Putnam mentioned, you should be using the event structure.
Other thoughts:
The biggest strength I see with LabVIEW is that each VI is a miniature program, which allows development and debugging of functions a snap. With a language like C you have to write another program to call that function in order to debug it. The biggest weakness? I would say user interface. Yes, even with the event structure. Don't get me wrong, the event structure has vastly improved the way user interfaces and event handling in general are done with LabVIEW, but it simply doesn't hold muster to a program written in C or VB. ActiveX anyone? LabVIEW still doesn't do ActiveX properly in terms of actually getting the controls to work. Programming ActiveX controls is just plain aggravating what with all the property nodes taking up so much diagram space.
It certainly makes sense to use the best tools available to you to get the job done. In my recent projects I had to write software to run automated tests on some products my company made. The test modules were written in LabVIEW. The tests executive was a proprietary engine driven by a SQL Server database. I had to write a "wrapper" DLL that interfaced between the LabVIEW code and the executive since the executive hadn't been designed to call LabVIEW DLLs directly. This allowed us to use LabVIEW as the preferred language for developing the test modules and let the guys who were fiddling with the test executive do their bit. Of course, TestStand's premise is basically that.

What programming language should i learn first?

Hi, i'm Francis, from Rome. As you can see, i have a MacBook White with Mac OS X 10.5.8.
Yesterday i downloaded *Xcode with iPhone SDK (version 3.1)*. I want to create Mac and iPhone/iPod/iPad applications.
I read that there are several programming languages: Java, Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, C, C++, Objective C, Objective C++, Carbon, Classic, BSD, etc...
What should i begin with? +I think Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, C and Objective C, but i'm not sure!+
Can you help me? Thanks!

Java, C, C++, Objective-C are languages. Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, Carbon, and Classic are what are known as APIs - resources you can use in your programs but not languages in their own right. BSD is short for BSD UNIX, and it's an operating system (that's the foundation for OS X). HTML is a document format more than a language.
What language(s) to learn depends on your objectives or needs. OS X comes with Python, Ruby, PERL, AppleScript, and PHP languages (and JavaScript in the web browser). Current versions also include Java. If you install the OS X development tools, it adds C, C++, and Objective-C along with the XCode development environment.
Each of the languages has it's strengths and weaknesses. From a purely educational standpoint, C is a high-level language that will teach you about low-level programming. Java teaches very strong object-oriented programming.
Objective-C would permit you to develop using the iOS toolkits for iPhone and iPad, and also application programming for OS X.
PERL, Python, and Ruby are all simple to learn scripting languages and very powerful for all sorts of automation tasks, text processing, and CGI scripting.

Programming Language

This might sound like a wierd question. If i wanted to learn a programming language where should I start? Is it possible to learn Java or C++ or something like that on the Mac? What are your suggestions?
Thanks...
Rob

If you plan on programming specifically for Mac I would definately recommend Cocoa (Obj-C) since it is the "native" programming environment for Mac OS X. I would also recommend you to check apple's developer site for info on how to get started. There are a couple of books you might want to look into.
Luis

How to learn swift programing language

i want to learn swift programing language.it seems i need xcode 6 for learning swift.so
should i buy both of developer accounts (ios developer,mac developer) for learning swift???

ershad459 wrote:
Can you explain it with more details.?
it seems swift is more easiyer than objective c.
and you said i most learn objective c and swift.right??
Not sure how much easier Swift will be to learn over C/Objective-C, took a quick look through the manual and while somethings are simpler overall the impression I got is that it will have it's own problems. Any language that is complex enough to do complex programs will be difficult, at least at first. What makes one language harder then another is how consistent. If you do one thing one way one time and then do it another way another time the language will be a pain to work with no matter how 'easy' it is. From what I've read I'm a bit leery of Switf's consistency, but only time will tell.
As for learning C/Objective-C as ckuan wrote knowing more then one language is always a good thing, especially if you are looking to do this for work. But more importably as I wrote those languages won;t be going away anytime soon. All of the system and UI code is in C and-or Objective-C. The UI is all Objective-C. I'm still waiting to see how Swift will interface with the UI, but I have to believe that for more then the simplest interfaces a certain amount of Objective-C code will need to be written.
I suppose long term Apple's idea is to have all third part development done in Swift. But I think that day is still off in the future. I see no waste of resources for a programmer new to Apple spending time with C/Objective-C.
good luck
regards

Learning Mac Programming and XCode

I know how to program in PHP, currently learning Visual Basic in a college coarse, and am very interested in learning C++/Obj-C programming with Cocoa within XCode, but I do not know what books would be a good starting point. The only C programming I have ever done was back 14 years ago when I was in high school and never got into the old Classic Mac Toolbox.
Does anyone know of a good book that is both a "learn how to program on the mac with XCode" and a good reference for the programming language itself? I have messed around with interface builder a bit and really like how easy it is to mock up the design, but the actual code logic is beyond me at this point and I would like to get deeper into it.

Rod,
there is no single book to teach you both. I would recommend the following books:
1. Programming in Objective C by Stephen Kochan
2. Cocoa: Programming for OS X by Aaron Hillegass
After reading them, you will decide if you need a book on XCode itself.
I am afraid C++ is a different kind of animal and you will need different books.
Mihalis

Retrieving Old Mac Programs

Here is my problem. I have a lot of very old Mac programs that I would like to run on my Mac (PowerPC G5) under the Classic environment. These are quite valuable older programs that are not longer available.
These programs are on discs. I am not familiar with the correct designation for these disks but some of them have an "HD" label on them and others are labeled "Double Density 800KB". I purchased and external disk drive, but was not able to read these these old disks.
I think what needs to be done is have the old disks converted using an older Mac and older software into a format that can be read my my G5. Do any of you know of a company that provides such a service?
Do you have other suggestions to help me retrieve these older programs?
Thanks for your help.

PLB11
The mechanics of your intention having been dealt with—although neither Rainer in Germany nor I in Australia can be but an extreme possibility—you will need to consider the logic of the matter also.
If these same applications are not already supported in OS 9 running on an OS 9-bootable Mac (that is, if the applications will not run in OS 9.2.1 at least), you will not be able to use them in the Classic Environment under OS X, and transfers to your G5 will not profit you at all.
Machine-language programs may stand a chance of successfully making the leap (eg WriteNow runs in the CE of OS 10.3.9), but programs with optional (or obligatory) 24-bit operation will probably not survive the transition, nor will those that have no ability to run in a PowerPC (601 processors and later) environment necessarily do so unless they were 'fat binary' (containing the ability to emulate 68K processors).
You may be doing the equivalent of expecting a mediæval barber to replace a cornea successfully. As has been hinted, at least, with the possible exception of machine-language programs, OS 8.0/8.1 may be as modern as you can go, using a 68040 processor probably, or a 60x if you are fortunate.

The Best Development Kit to make Mac programs

Hello
I am not new to Windows programming and i've made hounders of great applications but i've bought Mac a few days ago and already have learned the system itself and i am now trying to figure out how to make applications for Mac OS.. I have been programming in Delphi and Visual Basic - very great and powerful WYSIWYG development kit for windows...
What programming languages can i make my apps with in Mac OS? And which one is more like Delphi or Visual Basic because i'm used to them (not the language but wysiwyg editor when you can simply drop the button on the form or text edit field It's very handy)...
Thanks,
Martin

Hi Martin,
Welcome to the Mac! Most Mac applications are written in Objective-C using the Xcode IDE and Interface Builder tool (also drag-and-drop wysiwyg-type tool). These tools are made by Apple and come on your Mac OS installation DVD or can be downloaded from the developer.apple.com website. I think you will find that developing in Objective-C is a little bit different than anything else you've encountered, but I'm sure you'll pick it up and eventually come to appreciate what a fantastic language/platform it is for software development. Another of the many reasons why Apple is a great company that (unlike the other reasons) only us developers know about.
Good luck,
DonotMan

Mac programs "quit unexpectedly"

Since installing Mavericks on my MacBook Air I can no longer log into Safari, Mail, Apple Store, Notes, or update anything anymore.I always get whatever program "quit unexpectedly." It only seems to effect Mac programs. I have to use FireFox to get on line now (no issues).
Any thoughts? I'm currently running OS X 10.9 on a 2GHz i7 with 8 GB ram.

Hello, not your fault, but when you use Paste instead of Paste & Match style, this forum makes it really hard to read the log.
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu at top of the screen. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.

Learning programming language

Hello,
Ok I know this is a bit classic, but I need some clarification. I want to learn how create an application, specifically for Mac. FYI, I'm basically starting from a scratch. I found in some discussion that the best place to start is from C programming language. But what about C++? I mean will there be a problem if I learn C++ instead of C?
I need a real basic guide to understand the difference and will learning one leads to understanding of the other?
Also, when will the Xcode tools provided with Mac install cd be useful? Is it only useable to create an app after I learn at least on language?

I agree with vidg on Hillegass. If you want to learn Cocoa for OS/X, you want that book!
Whether you need any preparation before diving into Cocoa doesn't really depend on what languages you've learned, but rather on how much aptitude and experience you have in programming. If you've never programmed a computer, you might want to get a book that teaches programming with C. That's different from a book that assumes you understand the basics and just want to learn a new language.
To pick out such a book, I'd recommend a trip to a good bookstore. Spend a few hours browsing and find something that makes some sense to you on almost every page. Somewhere on the front or back cover it should say something like "Learn the fundamentals of programming using C". And maybe in smaller print it will say: "Part 1 covers data types, operators, assignments, conditional statements, loops and functions. Part 2 will show you how your data is stored in memory and will explain pointers".
Also remember that people learn differently. Some people can pick up a skill by just studying a book and doing the projects alone. Others do better when they can discuss concepts and collaborate on projects with others. So if it suits you better, consider at least one introductory programming course at a community college. In my opinion, surfing the web, watching videos and trying to dialogue in forums is a sad excuse for a live class.
Anyway, which ever path you choose, if you find you like programming but aren't quite ready for Hillegass, you soon will be. The key to all of this is whether programming is fun for you. If it's right for you, the language, the tools and the platform are secondary.
As to your question about C++, stick to vanilla C until you know enough about programming to decide for yourself. C++ and Obj-C are two branches off C that support programming in an "Object Oriented" fashion. The choice between them is usually determined by the "Application Programming Interface" (API) you're aiming for. For example, Windows doesn't have an Obj-C API, so you might choose to follow the C++ path in that case (though MS now encourages adoption of its own C variant for those of its victims who are lucky enough to escape VB). OS/X supports several API's, and Xcode will work with any of them. However the preferred API for new apps, and the one that appears to have the brightest future is Cocoa. Cocoa requires Obj-C, so if you want to make Mac apps, I would recommend Obj-C over C++. In fact if you want to learn Cocoa, I'd urge you to stay away from C++. So don't pick out a programming book that boasts it will teach you C++ as well as C. The ++ doesn't mean you're getting more for your money, ok?
Re your question about Xcode: Yes, you can use Xcode to make simple C programs and see your program's output in the Console window. If your C programming book doesn't cover working on a Mac, just remember to choose the Command Line Utility->Standard Tool template after selecting File->New Project from the Xcode menu bar, and be sure to select Run->Console to open your Console window. The template already has enough C code for a program that prints "Hello World!" when you click "Build and Go". So your very first program will compile and run with no errors. It doesn't get much better than that!
Once you're ready for Cocoa programming, Hillegass includes step by step instructions on using Xcode with each project.
Hope that helps!

Programming Language Inquiry

Hello to all,
I purchased a Macbook yesterday. Life long Windows user, but did purchase a iMac a few months ago.
I have created number Windows application using Visual Basic. I would like to start to do the same using my MAC. Is there an equivalent program / language similar to VB (Object Oriented Programming).
I have looked at Apple Script slightly, but not that much.
Any assistance or direction is much appreciated.

Check this out:
http://www.realsoftware.com/users/visualbasic/
It's comparible to VB and easily learned - I got it down pretty quickly. However, since mac isn't supporting any Object-Oriented coding anymore you won't be able to get VB directly. There are numerous "conversion" programs out there that claim to be able to change VB into a Linux or Unix based code Macs can understand but I have my doubts about them (never seen them used so I can't say for sure that they don't work - it just seems like a stretch to claim conversion between an Object Oriented language and a "pure" programming language like Linux).
Your other option would be to try Bootcamp or Parallels and install Windows on your Mac. VB will run in it. I've designed many Access databases in my Parallels Windows XP "machine".

Which programing language

I'm considering learning a programing language and write some easy and small (database related) applications on OSX.
1. Which programming language should I be learning?
2. Is there a list highlighting programming languages, their advantages and disadvantages and learning difficulty?
Thanks in advance for your help!

The choice of a first programming language is often decisive of whether or not you are able to successfully learn to program. If it's too hard you will give up; if it's too simple, you could have problems in the future.
In recent years, Java has been the favorite in universities, presumably because of its wide use and easy readability. The other popular choice is C++. When I went to college, we only had C.
But none of these are great choices if you truly have never written a line of code before in your life. You would probably do better to start with an interpreted ("scripting") language, like PHP or Python, even if only for a couple months until you are comfortable with the basic programming concepts. Then you can move on to a compiled language.
For development on the Mac platform, Objective-C is the obvious choice. It is a very simple language to get started with, and there are a lot of fun things that you can do with it. This should keep you interested enough to get you through the difficult times. And, of course, we are here for you. Good luck.

I'm sure this is a setting fix, but can't find it-. All of my windows for mac programs open when I turn on my computer, such that I have to close each one individually to get to my desk top. How do I adjust so none of them open unless I choose to?

I'm sure this is a setting fix, but can't find it…. All of my windows for mac programs open when I turn on my computer, such that I have to close each one individually to get to my desk top. How do I adjust so none of them open unless I choose to?

Remove the check in the box "Reopen windows when logging back in":

Parallels: transferring info from a Windows program to a Mac program

I've been devoted to a Mac for a few years now, but I recently had to switch back to Windows because of its far superior voice recognition software. (I was recently disabled, and now rely on voice recognition to type.)
If I were to buy a new Mac and use my Dragon NaturallySpeaking professional software (the Windows voice recognition program) via Parallels, does anyone know if I would be able to use that to type in a Macintosh program? I understand that I could stay within the virtual Windows platform or do separate tasks on the Mac platform, but I'm not sure if I would be able to transfer the information gathered by the Windows program into a Mac program.
If I'm able to do this, it would mean I could finally switch back to a Mac. Thanks in advance!

If I were to buy a new Mac and use my Dragon
NaturallySpeaking professional software (the Windows
voice recognition program) via Parallels, does anyone
know if I would be able to use that to type in a
Macintosh program?
No
iFelix

Mac Programming Language

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