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Mac OS X Leopard - ARCAism

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CHAPTER 24 MAC <strong>OS</strong> X DEVELOPMENT: THE APPLICATION FRAMEWORKS<br />

Objective-C, a revolutionary programming language that combines the design advantages of an<br />

object-oriented language with the flexibility of a low-level language, the dynamism of a scripting<br />

language, and a revolution in readability that almost makes comments obsolete.<br />

Figure 24-1. Great applications are built with great tools.<br />

We’ll talk about Interface Builder and Objective-C in the next couple of chapters. For now,<br />

let’s focus on some of the frameworks that make creating professional applications in Cocoa<br />

so easy.<br />

NOTE Cocoa is only one of several application frameworks on <strong>Mac</strong> <strong>OS</strong> X, but you don’t have<br />

to worry about whether something is technically Cocoa, a shared framework with a Cocoa<br />

interface, or part of another application framework altogether. You can use them all from your<br />

Cocoa application, thanks largely to the flexibility of Objective-C.<br />

Application Kit<br />

Just as its name implies, the Application Kit (or AppKit, as it is known to its friends) is a collection<br />

of prebuilt components common to many applications. Developers can cobble together a<br />

completely functional, if uninteresting, application by snapping together components, like those<br />

shown in Figure 24-2. Only Swedish furniture rivals the ease of assembly offered by AppKit.

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