Updated March 4, 2023
Differences Between C++ and Objective C
C++ is an object-oriented and general-purpose programming language. It is used mostly for system programming, embedded programming, and largely complex systems. The file name extensions are like .c, .cc, .cpp, .c++, .h, .hh, .hpp etc. C++ influenced many programming languages like Java, C#. It has been the third most used programming language after Java and C. The objective is also an object-oriented and general-purpose programming language plus Small talk style messaging to C programming language. It is both static and dynamic typed programming language.
C++
It is procedural, multi-paradigm, functional and first appeared in the year 1985. It was designed by Bjarne Stroustrup and was started developing at Bell Labs C++ was standardized by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) with the latest version published in the year 2017. C++ has features such as Namespaces, References, Templates, implicit method overloading
Objective C
It is reflective, class-based, and designed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in a company named Stepstone and first appeared in 1984. It supports cross-platform applications and was influenced by Small talk and C programming language. Objective C is a superset of the C programming language. The file extensions normally include .m or .h, depending on whether it is a program file or a header file.
Head to Head Comparison Between C++ and Objective C (Infographics)
Below is the top 9 difference between C++ vs Objective C
Key Differences between C++ and Objective C
Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major differences:
- C++ is a middle-level language that is being run on various cross-platform operating systems such as Windows, UNIX, Macintosh OS, etc., whereas Objective C is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language used by Apple in its operating systems and APIs Cocoa, etc.
- C++ supports data hiding, encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism and also has main core components like Standard Template Library (STL), whereas Objective C also supports the same features as C++ except for STL and includes foundational frameworks.
- C++ supports portability which has ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard, which the major C++ IDE manufacturers are supporting, whereas Objective C has different data types, tokens to recognize the identifiers, declarations and assignments and pre-processor to define constants.
- C++ supports different operators such as Arithmetic Operators, Logical Operators, Bitwise Operators, Relational Operators, Assignment Operators, and Miscellaneous Operators, and Objective C also supports the same operators and pre-processors which are not part of the compilation process.
- C++ supports Files and Streams, Exception Handling, Dynamic memory, Namespaces, Templates, Pre-processors, and Multi-threading, etc., whereas Objective C supports Posing, Extensions, Dynamic Binding, Protocols, Composite Objects, Memory Management, and Enumerations.
- C++ has features such as Namespaces, References, Templates, implicit method overloading, whereas Objective C allows dynamic dispatch, auto-generation of accessors to access member variables and properties and allows a method and a name to share the same identifier.
- In C++, calling a method will be decided at compile-time, whereas in Objective C, calling a method will be decided at runtime, and also Objective C has special features like adding or replacing methods like on a class that already exists.
- In C++, objects are null and cannot be handled safely in all cases where a dereference is used; then a Run-Time error will be thrown, whereas Objective C has nil which can be safely handled in a powerful way by safely sending messages to nil objects.
- In C++, operator overloading is supported and is more portable and simple, whereas Objective C does not support default parameters but can be implemented by multiple methods manipulation and also do not support private members.
- In C++, the memory is allocated during runtime at the heap of the objects, whereas Objective C does not support stack-based memory objects and allocating memory in Objective C is very expensive, and it plays a key role in writing successful programs for the delivery of efficient applications.
- In C++, class objects are declared normally. They are similar to that of general object-oriented programming languages. In contrast, Objective C has a composite object feature with an embedded object inside an object, which means a private cluster object will be embedded into the main object and some primitive methods.
- In C++, the Standard Library contains two parts which are Standard Function Library and Object-Oriented Class Library, whereas Objective C has a Fast Enumeration feature where collections are core components of this feature.
C++ vs Objective C Comparison Table
Below is the topmost comparison:
| Basis Of Comparison | C++ | Objective C |
| Design | It was designed to be object-oriented and procedural | It was designed to be object-oriented along with the Smalltalk messaging feature. |
| Inheritance | It allows multiple inheritances | It does not allow multiple inheritances |
| Paradigm | It uses methods to call the implemented functionalities | It uses messages to call the implemented functionalities as it was implemented based on Smalltalk messaging |
| Classes | Structs and classes are the same in C++ | Structs and classes are treated differently in Objective C |
| License | It is open source project 2.0 | It is licensed under GPL (General Public License) |
| Type | It is static typing | It is dynamic typing |
| Polymorphism | Parametric polymorphism in C++ is checked at compile time | Parametric polymorphism in Objective C is checked at compile time |
| Boolean Operators | C++ uses true, false and bool | C++ uses YES, NO and BOOL |
| Templates | C++ has STL (Standard Template Library) libraries | Objective C lacks template libraries |
Conclusion
C++ is a programming language mostly used for hardware programming and embedded devices nowadays and also being used in most system programming where large software systems can be developed. Objective C is mostly used for the development of operating systems like OS X and iOS for Apple products like Mac or iPhone. Objective C is mostly used for Apple Operating Systems and is confined to Apple products development, whereas C++ is open source and can be used for most of the hardware and embedded applications but lacks insecurity in the usage of programming features and data being managed. It is being used for most desktop applications development by Microsoft and most modern applications. Objective C is used to develop Swift applications.
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