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Damien

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2004
244
31
Canterbury
Hey, I am learning C at the moment as part of my uni course. At the same time I wanted to learn how to code for the mac. What differences are there, if any. What should I keep in mind while learning? Any other tips would be welcomed
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Pure ANSI C is the same (that's the idea of a standard!). GUI programming tends to be specialised to the platform it's on.
 

VanMac

macrumors 6502a
May 26, 2005
914
0
Rampaging Tokyo
Damien said:
Hey, I am learning C at the moment as part of my uni course. At the same time I wanted to learn how to code for the mac. What differences are there, if any. What should I keep in mind while learning? Any other tips would be welcomed
C/C++ is a good foundation for learning.
Also take a look at Java. Java/Swing development is platform agnostic. Very nice.
Also, poke through the developer section on Apple website and maybe dl some tools and tutorials.
 

Damien

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2004
244
31
Canterbury
So how different is using xcode? I mean we learn on Visual Studio, while the program would be different shouldnt the same code be fine? Isnt C standard on both?
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Damien said:
So how different is using xcode? I mean we learn on Visual Studio, while the program would be different shouldnt the same code be fine? Isnt C standard on both?

Exactly. Unless you use any non-standard extensions that might exist in VS. Or use Microsoft libraries (for buildnig GUIs for example).
 

Josh

macrumors 68000
Mar 4, 2004
1,640
1
State College, PA
I am also learning C at the moment on my Mac.

What I use varies...sometimes I use textwrangler + gcc, somtimes vi + gcc, and recently I've used XCode every now and then.

So far, I'm finding it to be quite fun..I start CS courses at MSU next fall, so I've been trying to get a start by learning C before school starts. I've been using Teach Yourself C by Herbert Schildt. An excellent book IMO, very easy to follow, and teaches quickly and effectively.
 

Damien

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2004
244
31
Canterbury
Can some tell me what the differences are between C, C++ and C Sharp? Also what on earth is all the different mac code names about Coca? Carbon? What are these?

What is Unix based on as well? :confused:
 

Heath

macrumors regular
Aug 19, 2005
133
0
Canada
Damien said:
Can some tell me what the differences are between C, C++ and C Sharp? Also what on earth is all the different mac code names about Coca? Carbon? What are these?

What is Unix based on as well? :confused:


C is the programming language is the oldest of them all and some would say a common ancestor of many programming languages, it is not object oriented.

C++ is C with object oriented extensions added

C# is only related to C in the fact that they share a letter.
It's closer to Java being that it's based on a virtual machine and has object oriented facilities.

Unix was built using C

Carbon is the older Mac development style, Cocoa is the new way to do it using yet another language Objective C which is another object oriented extension of C.

That probably confuses more, but hey, it's my understanding of it. If I'm incorrect I'm sure someone will correct me.
 
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