A few people were asking me about how Objective C and its syntax stand out.  Common questions came up about Objective C’s properties and synthesize, bracket and dot notation, and function and argument naming, and the class naming with 2 or 3 letter prefixes.

Here’s a quick comparison to give a developer that’s new to Objective C a 2 minute run-through of some syntax differences.  I recommend going straight to the code below for your favorite language, and then reading the equivalent Objective C code.

And here’s the equivalent PDF with a nicer side-by-side view.

Objective C

// ASVSquare.h
@interface ASVSquare : ASVShape {
@private
   int _width;
}

@property (assign) int width;

+ (NSString *)summaryInfo;
- (void)draw;
- (void)drawInRect:(CGRect *)rect
   withBackgroundColor:(CGColor *)color;

@end

// ASVSquare.m
@implementation ASVSquare

@synthesize width = _width;

+ (NSString *)summaryInfo { ... }

- (void)draw { ... }

- (void)drawInRect:(CGRect *)rect
   withBackgroundColor:(CGColor *)color
{ ... }

@end

// Usage
#import "ASVSquare.h"

ASVSquare *mySquare = [[ASVSquare alloc] init];

mySquare.width = 5;
NSLog(@”%d”, mySquare.width);
[mySquare draw];
[mySquare drawInRect:someRect
   withBackgroundColor:someColor];

NSLog(@”%@”, [ASVSquare summaryInfo]);

[mySquare release];

C++

// Square.cpp
namespace Appssavvy;

class Square : public Shape {
private:
   int _width;

public:
   int getWidth() {
      return _width;
   }
   
   void setWidth(int newWidth) {
      _width = newWidth;
   }

   void draw() { ... }

   void draw(CGRect *rect,
             CGColor *backgroundColor)
   { ... }

   static MyString * summaryInfo { ... }
}

// Usage
using namespace Appssavvy;

#include "Square.h"

Square *mySquare = new Square();

mySquare->setWidth(5);
mySquare->draw();
mySquare->draw(rect, color);

cout << Square::summaryInfo() << endl;

delete mySquare;

Java

// Hello.java
package Appssavvy;

public class Square extends Shape {
   private int _width;

   public int getWidth() {
      return _width;
   }

   public void setWidth(int newWidth) {
      _width = newWidth;
   }

   public void draw() { ... }

   public void draw(CGRect rect,
                    CGColor backgrndColor) 
   { ... }

   public static String summaryInfo()
   { ... }
}

// Usage
import Appssavvy.Square;

Square square = new Square();

square.setWidth(5);
square.draw();
square.draw(someRect, someColor);

System.out.println(Square::summaryInfo());

Javascript

// AppssavvySquare.js
import Appssavvy.Square;

Square square = new Square();

square.setWidth(5);
square.draw();
square.draw(someRect, someColor);

System.out.println(Square::summaryInfo());

// Usage
ASVSquare square = ASVSquare();

square.width = 5;
square.draw();
square.drawInRect(someRect, someColor);

console.log(ASVSquare_summaryInfo());