Comparing Jimi Hendrix to Objective-C is like comparing Ken Thompson to a guitar. Musician, instrument. Painter, brushes.
Besides, as far as I know, Objective-C only ever gained traction within the very narrow realm of MacOS and iOS application development, and has since been mostly supplanted by Swift in both of those use cases. That's hardly comparable to the enduring, cross-cultural influence of Hendrix.
If we're making weird anthropomorphic analogies, I'd argue Objective-C is more like Sleep, People Under the Stairs, or maybe The Replacements. Enormously important within the scope of their own subculture.
Having both worked with Objective-C and with Pharo (a Smalltalk descendant), I would argue that the introspection, for example, is a Smalltalk influence. Of course, as some know Objective-C is inspired by Smalltalk, among other languages
I started learning Obj-C and AppKit in the mid 2000s. During that process I had a moment of zen when I realized that everything I had learned and done with C++ and COM in the late 90s was completely wrong.
I'm not sure about the title, which just seems weird.
But I think the broad point in the short post is right. Objective-C may look horrible today, but compared to the other choices at the time of its debut; it looked pretty damned good and even better because it was what NeXT was attaching its UI tooling to -- and compared to what was around at the time InterfaceBuilder was unreal good.
ryukoposting ·42 days ago
Besides, as far as I know, Objective-C only ever gained traction within the very narrow realm of MacOS and iOS application development, and has since been mostly supplanted by Swift in both of those use cases. That's hardly comparable to the enduring, cross-cultural influence of Hendrix.
If we're making weird anthropomorphic analogies, I'd argue Objective-C is more like Sleep, People Under the Stairs, or maybe The Replacements. Enormously important within the scope of their own subculture.
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melvinroest ·42 days ago
thought_alarm ·42 days ago
cmsonger ·42 days ago
But I think the broad point in the short post is right. Objective-C may look horrible today, but compared to the other choices at the time of its debut; it looked pretty damned good and even better because it was what NeXT was attaching its UI tooling to -- and compared to what was around at the time InterfaceBuilder was unreal good.
Ezhik ·42 days ago
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