Cocoa is an integrated suite of object-oriented software components-classes-that enables you to rapidly create robust, full-featured OS X and iOS applications.

In its runtime aspect, Cocoa applications present the user interface and are tightly integrated with the other visible components of the operating system in OS X, these include the Finder, the Dock, and other applications from all environments.īut it is the development aspect that is the more interesting one to programmers. Introducing CocoaĪs with all application environments, Cocoa presents two faces it has a runtime aspect and a development aspect. The combination of this development environment and Cocoa makes it easy to create a well-factored, full-featured application. An integrated development environment called Xcode supports application development for both platforms. (Carbon is an alternative environment in OS X, but it is a compatibility framework with procedural programmatic interfaces intended to support existing OS X code bases.) Most of the applications you see in OS X and iOS, including Mail and Safari, are Cocoa applications. Cocoa is the preeminent application environment for OS X and the only application environment for iOS. The Cocoa EnvironmentĬocoa is a set of object-oriented frameworks that provides a runtime environment for applications running in OS X and iOS. Reading this functional description of Cocoa is an essential first step for a developer trying to understand Cocoa. This chapter expands on this definition, describing the purpose, capabilities, and components of Cocoa on both platforms. It consists of a suite of object-oriented software libraries, a runtime system, and an integrated development environment.

What Is Cocoa?Ĭocoa is an application environment for both the OS X operating system and iOS, the operating system used on Multi-Touch devices such as iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Links to downloads and other resources may no longer be valid. This document may not represent best practices for current development.

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