Ebook: NeXTSTEP Programming, Step One: Object-Oriented Applications

This book is about programming computers running NeXTSTEP. It’s a nononsense, hands-on book that teaches programmers how to write application programs that take full advantage of NeXTSTEP, the operating environment from NeXT Computer Inc.

Writing programs for NeXTSTEP is fundamentally different than writing programs for other computers, because NeXTSTEP represents a radical departure from conventional programming environments. One writes NeXTSTEP programs by building systems of related but distinct parts, or objects, and connecting them together to form an integrated whole. Confining different aspects of a program to different pieces makes those pieces easier to design, implement, debug, and reuse. This is what is known as object-oriented programming.

NeXTSTEP embodies the principles of object oriented programming from its user interface down to its very core. This greatly simplifies the task of interfacing application programs with the NeXTSTEP operating environment. The downside is that it makes the NeXTSTEP environment very different from the environments to which most programmers are accustomed: there’s a steep curve to climb when learning to program in this easy-to-program environment (sounds strange, but it’s true).

We wrote this book out of frustration: at the time, there was no single book that explained step-by-step how to write programs for NeXTSTEP. Instead, a programmer trying to approach the platform was confronted by the NeXT technical documentation and the source-code for several dozen example programs. There was no mention of style, program structure or design considerations. It seemed that there was a black art to writing programs for the black computer, along with a priesthood which promised that newcomers might one day become members — once we paid our dues. With this book, we’ve paid a lot of your dues for you.

This book is for anybody who knows how to program in C and wants to do something substantial with NeXTSTEP. Our goal is to get you up-and-running as quickly as possible. This isn’t a textbook or a reference manual — Brad Cox (the inventor of Objective-C) and the technical writing department at NeXT have already written those. This book is instead a jumpingoff point. Consequently, we will occasionally sacrifice depth for breadth and brevity. You won’t learn all of the options of Interface Builder or all the obscure methods that the Text object implements by reading this book. But you'll acquire the conceptual framework necessary to understand NeXT’s excellent documentation, enabling you to discover what you need to know about the Text object and everything else.

[Associated diskette image freely available at https://archive.org/details/nextestep-prog-step-one-disk]