ObjFW 0.5.2

ObjFW is a lightweight and portable framework for the Objective C language.<br /><br />Why would I need ObjFW?<br /><br />It enables you to write an application in Objective C that will run on any platform supported by ObjFW without having to worry about differences between operation systems or various frameworks you would otherwise need if you want to be portable.<br /><br />But why a new framework? There's Cocoa and GNUstep!<br /><br />ObjFW is quite different from Cocoa or GNUstep.<br /><br />If you want to write an application that is not limited to Mac OS X and its Cocoa, you are usually told to port it to GNUstep. But this is already where it starts: You have to port it. And there are differences between Cocoa and GNUstep which can be quite huge sometimes. Cocoa does not have some stuff anymore that's still in GNUstep and GNUstep often does not have stuff that was introduced in Cocoa. So why not have a framework that runs everywhere - on Mac OS X, on other Unices like Linux and even Windows? This way you don't have to write your code for Cocoa and GNUstep. If a function exists in that portable framework, you can be sure it works on any platform. And that portable framework is exactly what ObjFW is.<br /><br />But it has more differences than that. If you don't plan to be portable, it still offers advantages. For example, GNUstep is still designed for gcc 3.x and does not make use of any features of newer GCCs. But gcc 3.x had very poor ObjC support. It even has advantages to Cocoa: For example, it makes use of exceptions not just for programmer errors, but for other serious errors as well. This way, either the programmer has to handle the error or the program will abort, which can avoid some really nasty bugs and even security holes sometimes.<br /><br />Another advantage is that ObjFW only includes the core stuff. If you don't want all that GUI stuff and want to write a server, you might be quite unhappy about all the stuff that GNUstep for example needs. And about how badly it integrates into the Unix FHS. With ObjFW, your application will not look different to a native application to the user. A server can just link ObjFW and does not need some "strange" directory structure etc.<br /><br />Last but not least, you can also mix ObjFW with Cocoa and GNUstep because ObjFW uses a different prefix (OF instead of NS). For example, you can write your application core using ObjFW, but write your GUI using Cocoa and later add a Gtk+ or Qt GUI for Unices, using the same core.<br /><br />Find more information on the official home page!

Requirements:	No special requirements
Platforms:	Mac, Mac OSX
Keyword:	Application,  Differences,  Enable,  Frameworks,  Objective,  Objfw,  Operation,  Platform,  Portable,  Supported,  Systems,  Worry,  Write
Users rating:	0/10