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Stanford Offers Cocoa Class

Posted by pudge on from the mmmm-cocoa dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Back in the early 90's Stanford University offered a class on Objective-C for students interested in writing applications for NeXTSTEP. After a long hiatus it appears that class will be offered again as CS193E, 'Object-oriented User Interface Programming.' It will be covering the Apple development tools, Objective-C, Foundation and AppKit, and Quartz. Any other schools out there planning or already offering Objective-C courses?"

3 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Strange by DLWormwood · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The object syntax using brackets instead of dots is apparently uncomprehendable to your average programmer.

    I don't know... C++ has some strange syntax and greater-than/less-than usage, especially when you get to using templates.

    Obj-C didn't take off because NeXT didn't take off. The only reason Obj-C is still being talked about is that Apple inherited it for the once and future Mac OS.

    --
    Those who complain about affect & effect on /. should be disemvoweled
  2. Re:Strange by jcr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd chalk that up to history. C++ was promulgated by Bell Labs, and you could get it for free from FSF.

    Objective-C was offered by a tiny software company called StepStone, and for the first couple of years, you had to either buy a NeXT computer for about five grand, or pay StepStone something like $500 for it.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  3. Cocoa as a good tool for CS learning by oscarmv · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think no one has pointed this out, but IMHO Cocoa is a great environment (if not outright the best) to learn Object Oriented GUI programming. It tends not only to do things How They Should Be Done, but also gently enforce good practices.

    It's not like people doing CS courses don't use a number of tools they'll never use again after they get their degree (LISP compilers anyone? PROLOG? Obscure emulated environments? Did all those and more... learnt Cocoa in my free time, BTW).

    But in the interest of teaching good programming instead of "what's popular out there now" I'd rather have those coming behind me learning something like Cocoa and then adapting to Java or whatever (whose designed BTW is in many parts based on NextStep) than becoming klutzes with whatever has the greatest demand for code monkeys today.

    Just my .2