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Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language, which adds Smalltalk-style...

Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language, which adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language. Today it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iPhone OS: two environments based on, although not compliant with, the OpenStep standard. Objective-C is the primary language used for Apple's Cocoa API, and it was originally used as the main language on NeXT's NeXTSTEP OS. Generic Objective-C programs which do not make use of these libraries can also be compiled for any system supported by gcc, which includes an Objective-C compiler. In the early 1980s, common software engineering practice was based on structured programming. Structured programming was implemented in order to help "break down" programs into smaller parts, primarily to make them easier to work on as they grew increasingly large. However, as the problems being solved grew in size, structured programming became less useful as more and more procedures had to be written, leading to complex control structures and a low level of code reuse. Many saw object-oriented programming as a potential solution to the problem. In fact, Smalltalk had already addressed many of these engineering