the future of objective c? [closed]

Question

I am currently a c# developer(one year's working experience with bachelor degree in china), now there is another job opportunity as an objective c engineer and i am kind of interested in that position. but what bothers me is the future of objective c, is it a dying language living in the shadow of c++, java and c#? or it is a good language to stick to? thanks.

Answer 1

On the Mac it's definitely alive and kicking. Also the IPhone. So if you like working on those environments and systems then go for it.

As far as everywhere else it hasn't really caught on much that I'm aware of. Not to say that it couldn't though. Lots of good languages catch on relatively late, like erlang for instance, so I wouldn't count Objective-C out.

Not to mention the value of learning a new language and stretching yourself.

So, if you are asking will this help further my career? then one answer is yes learning something new can be of benefit to a beginning programmer.

If you are asking will experience with Objective-C itself be marketable? then the answer is yes if you want to work in the World of Apple software.

Answer 2

Objective-C is widely used on Mac OS X and the iPhone OS, so it's not likely to go away anytime soon. It forms the basis of OS X. Most Apple and third-party apps are written in Objective-C, and Apple is even rewriting the OS X Finder in Objective-C, so it looks like it'll be sticking around for a while.

It's definitely not living in the shadow of C++, Java, and C#, especially on OS X. (I personally think Objective-C is a much better language than C++, Java, and C#, but that's just my opinion.) It has a different feel than those languages (due at least in part to its dynamic, rather than static, nature), but it's not really living in the shadow of them.

It's worth learning if you want to develop for the Mac or iPhone, but it isn't used widely outside of those platforms, so if you're not interested in that line of development, I suppose it's not worth it to learn.