(PDF) Windows Based Graphical Objective C IDE

International Journal of Advancements Das et al., Int J Adv Technol 2016, 7:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 in Technology Research Research ResearchArticle Article Article Open Open Open Access Access Access Windows Based Graphical Objective C IDE Suvadeep Das*, Gaurav Singh and Balraj Kumar Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, Punjab, India Abstract On the growing demand of mobile application development, the learning and knowledge of the basic languages used in the development becomes a necessity. For the Android development, we need the basics of Java technology, for Windows phone application, the Dot Net and C# technology is promoted and for iOS development, the basics of Objective C is the main prerequisite. For most of the Windows based system users, it becomes difficult to practice the Objective C programs, since Windows provide no specific tool for it. Based upon this issue, by learning and doing a tremendous research on the working of different available Objective C IDEs and the methodologies used by them, we have come up with a Windows based User-friendly Objective C IDE that provides a cross platform advantage with graphical features. Keywords: Objective C; GCC; GNUStep; OBJCC IDE; Xcodel; GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) using GNUStep libraries Windows The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is a compiler system Introduction developed by GNU Project. It supports various Programming languages. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) gives license to GCC In the early 1970s, Mr. Dennis Ritchie at AT&T Bell labs developed under General Public License (GNU GPL). GCC, initially was written C Programming language but to utter shock, this programming as the compiler for GNU Operating System. GNU Step which is an open language didn’t gain any popularity until the late 1970s. The main implementation of OPENSTEP, is used as the backbone for running reason found behind the failure in making this language popular was Objective C language. With the help of GCC compiler, we can compile the unavailability of C compilers for commercial-use outside the AT&T and run Objective C codes in windows using the following command Bell labs. Soon after the development of UNIX operating system, which in DOS command: was written almost in C language, has made the language popular. Later in early 1980s Cox came up with a new language based on SmallTalk-80 The file is created in notepad and saved with “.m” extension. It is language and the language was named as Objective C. basically a command line based compiler in which everything needs to be done using Command Prompt tool (Figure 2). Inheriting the basic features of C language, Objective C is the addition of OOP concepts in it, including extensions to the functionality of the Tutorials point’s coding ground online cloud IDE language by supporting object creation and manipulation. Objective C was Tutorials Point’s Coding Ground [1], earlier known as further adopted by NeXT with the licensing agreement of the language compileonline.com, combined more than hundreds of online IDE of in 1988 and hence used as their main language. NeXT, again, developed popular languages. Its Open source IDE is fully based on cloud where libraries to use it with their main language for the development of operating you can edit, compile, execute and share your projects. Keeping GNU system known as NeXTSTEP, further with which iOS and MacOS X were libraries as their backbone of the Objective C online IDE, they provide derived. Objective C includes object-oriented features to C language, much functionality which is normally present in IDE offline software bringing an entirely new syntax (Figure 1). like create new projects, create directories, and create new files. We can In the year 1992, Free Software Foundation (FSF)’s GNU, the also download and share the projects that were created using it. open source software foundation included support for Objective C language development environment and in the year 1994 NeXT and Objectives Sun-Microsystems released a standardize specification for NeXTSTEP Primary purpose of Objective C language is to develop applications known as OPENSTEP. The Free Software Foundation implemented for iOS and MacOS X, hence, in Microsoft windows operating system OPENSTEP as GNUStep and later they developed a Linux version which there is just a scarce development of this language. Looking at the included the Linux kernel and GNUStep development environment limited popular IDEs available for Objective C, we can make out that and named it LinuxSTEP. in windows the compiler of objective c is not as featured as that of Xcode in MacOS X. For Microsoft windows, we have a GCC compiler, Till Date Achievable Objective C IDEs (Integrated Development which is a CLI (command line interface) compiler with limited scope of Environments) functionalities. There is a lack of a good environment for development Xcode IDE for Mac OS In 2003, Apple Inc. was first to develop a suite of software development tools named as Xcode. Xcode is an Integrated Development Environment *Corresponding author: Suvadeep Das, Lovely Professional University, Jalandhar, with which softwares for MacOS X and iOS are developed. Xcode is capable Punjab, India, Tel: +91 9056613339; E-mail:

of supporting number of languages like C, C++, Objective C, Objective Received November 24, 2015; Accepted November 27, 2015; Published C++, Java, AppleScript, Python, Ruby, Rez and Swift, together with the December 15, 2015 involvement of variety of programming models such as Cocoa, Carbon Citation: Das S, Singh G, Kumar B (2016) Windows Based Graphical Objective and Java in it, for user to have multiple framework options. Objective C C IDE. Int J Adv Technol 7: 150. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 being the primary language used in Xcode for the development of iOS and MacOS X applications. With the help of Clang Compiler, used by Xcode, Copyright: © 2016 Das S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted the programs written in Objective C, C and few other languages were use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and converted into executable code. source are credited. Int J Adv Technol Volume 7 • Issue 1 • 1000150 ISSN: 0976-4860 IJOAT, an open access journal Citation: Das S, Singh G, Kumar B (2016) Windows Based Graphical Objective C IDE. Int J Adv Technol 7: 150. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 Page 2 of 5 Chisnall et al. [6] presented with an interoperable framework for allowing code written in C (potentially with inline assembly), Objective-C, Smalltalk, and higher-level domain-specific languages Figure 1: Lineage of GNUstep. to coexist with very low cognitive or performance overhead. Our implementation shares an underlying object model, in interpreted, JIT -compiled and statically compiled code among all languages, allowing a single object to have method implemented in any of the supported languages. We also describe several techniques that we have used to improve the performance of late-bound dynamic languages. Chisnall et al. [7] discussed a new Objective C runtime with 10% decrease in the already existing GNU runtime library which is of 11,688 Figure 2: GNU compiler collection. lines. The newer library is 15% closer to the GNU runtime Library. The new library supports various functionalities that are present in of Objective C programs. GNU runtime, he had described them in the research article. Garbage The main objectives of our research are as follows: collection is not yet supported in the proposed runtime. He had released the code for the runtime under 3-clause BSD license. 1. Analyze the available IDEs and the research work done on Objective C in previous years so as to understand the working of IDE Problem Definition and the necessary libraries that are required for the compilation of the In this section, we describe several challenging problems based on code in Microsoft Windows. our experiences in Objective C learning. These areas are focused on 2. Implementation of a GUI based IDE with all the basic the lack of development of objective c compiler in any other platforms functionalities which are required to successfully develop and debug Mac OS. Since 2007, Objective C is used for developing iOS device Objective C codes under Microsoft windows environment. applications. It becomes usual to have a Mac system in-order to learn Objective C most of the time. However, there is a free implementation Literature Review of OPENSTEP framework present for windows named as GNUStep but Brandon et al. [2] discussed about a case study in which Glasgow it becomes bit difficult for a normal user to work on it. We need to use a University took help from NeXTSTEP to upgrade their computers. IN text editor to write the code and later on with command line, we compile their paper they have described about implementation and porting of and execute it by writing a huge command every time. When the share NeXT MusicKit, they also have cloned NeXT SoundKit – The SndKit of apple's smartphone grew to 42.8 percent from 39.2 percent in a year on various number of platforms, both old and new. They have outlined as per cnet.com, the popularity of the objective c language arouse even some of the strengths and weaknesses of the kit and demonstrated more. Developers have been using Objective C to build mobile apps several applications which had made the transition from NextSTEP to since March 6th, 2008 with iPhone OS. However more than 60% of WebObjects/NT and MacOS X. the IT persons are using Microsoft Windows, where it comes the need to have a cross platform environment to develop Objective C codes in Muqri et al. [3] exposed the technology students to the fascinating Microsoft windows which can enable the developers to learn Objective comparison between Objective C language which is used for developing C without having a Macintosh system. applications in iPhone and Java language which is used for developing apps for Android phones. This paper explains about how the learning Motivation and teaching module is progressive in learning of students and also The motivating factor for the development of GUI based Objective demonstrated that developing smart phone applications are not just C IDE is the lack of a good compiler for the development of Objective limited to fun and gaming applications but to develop apps for students C programs in Microsoft’s Windows environment. As we were learning through which they can inform and educate themselves about the topics Objective C in our university that has a MAC Lab and Xcode installed which are traditionally not covered by conventional software courses. to it but it was very difficult for us to develop codes in our Microsoft Gupta et al. [4] have done research on various languages she studied Windows installed laptop systems as 99% of the students had Window the history and influence of one language to another. In their paper they based systems. Therefore, we had only two options for practicing and have discussed that in the beginning C language was developed and compiling the Objective C codes, either to use GNUStep command the purpose was to give programmers a coding friendly environment. line compiler or Tutorial Point’s Codeground Online IDE. Codeground The C language had some drawbacks and Objective C was developed requires a stable and fast internet connection. Along with these to overcome the drawbacks. Objective C also had some issues and then problems, we came up with an idea of developing a GUI based IDE for C++ had arrived. It had features of C and Objective C both. Microsoft Windows which can compile and execute the Objective C codes similar to the IDEs available for executing C or C++ languages. Gulhane et al. [5] have presented a code converter application for cross platform development. They have developed an online Proposed Solution examination system that will reduce evaluation time and give the results in seconds. In this paper they discussed about developing an An ideal method to solve this cross platform dilemma is the application which can run on both android and iPhone using their code ability to design and develop a GUI based IDE that runs on Microsoft converter tool. The can be used for other languages also which demands windows based operating systems. Looking at the Coding Ground conversion. They have talked about android and iPhone only in this by Tutorial’s point that have used GCC’s GNUStep libraries for the paper. By using their tool, code has to be developed only once reducing compile and execution of the Objective C codes, our OBJCC (Objective the code development time and energy by half. C Compiler) compiler is also using the same libraries. By installing following three files in windows operating system, we can execute Int J Adv Technol Volume 7 • Issue 1 • 1000150 ISSN: 0976-4860 IJOAT, an open access journal Citation: Das S, Singh G, Kumar B (2016) Windows Based Graphical Objective C IDE. Int J Adv Technol 7: 150. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 Page 3 of 5 and compile Objective C codes using command line tool Microsoft’s Command Prompt [8]: GNUStep core It consists of GNUStep-make, GNUStep-base, GNUStep-gui & Figure 3c: Menu options. GNUStep-back. In order to compile Objective C code, GNUStep-make and GNUStep-base is required. With core, we can be able to open shell window and then execute commands. GNUStep devel This will give us GCC with Objective C and GNUStep libraries which allow us to develop codes, compile and execute them. GNUStep Msys system This gives us the core UNIX like tools which are required for performing operations in windows with GNUStep. After having all the Figure 3d: Right click menu. three files installed in Microsoft windows based operating system, we can now compile and execute Objective C codes. After this, the objective was to develop GUI based IDE. OBJCC IDE is developed using .NET technology using C# programming language. The IDE includes the following features: A code editor with expression highlighting feature and line number (Figure 3a). An output window at the bottom to show any message while execution (Figure 3b). Figure 3e: Editing options. Menu options for creating new file, saving, compiling and for execution (Figure 3c). Right click menu with some basic options (Figure 3d). Basic Editing options are also included like Quick Find, Find and Replace etc (Figure 3e). How OBJCC IDE works? OBJCC (Objective C Compiler) IDE is using GCC compiler as its backend and following is a flow chart representing a general process flow in GCC’s GNUStep compiler (Figure 4a): GNUStep Core, Devel and Msys System are the three essential libraries in which all the classes and objects are present to provide a runtime environment for developing and compiling Objective C Figure 4a: GNU compiler collection execution flow. Figure 3a: Expression highlighting. programs. OBJCC uses the above GCC compiler process as its back-end, by having a GUI based interface. In flow chart it can be represented in the Figure 4b: In OBJCC IDE, for executing an Objective C code, first task is to create a new file and after creating a new file in a code editor Objective C code is to be developed. The code editor has all the basic functionalities which are required for writing a well formatted code. It automatically Figure 3b: Code output area. formats the code and highlight the functions and predefined keywords, etc. After successfully writing a code, our next task is to compile the Int J Adv Technol Volume 7 • Issue 1 • 1000150 ISSN: 0976-4860 IJOAT, an open access journal Citation: Das S, Singh G, Kumar B (2016) Windows Based Graphical Objective C IDE. Int J Adv Technol 7: 150. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 Page 4 of 5 shown as follow (Figure 4d): And if the code has some syntactical errors then the errors will show in the output window with the line number, as follows (Figure 4e): After compilation of the code, our next task is to execute or run the code. Execution of the written Objective C code is done by clicking on Run button present on the top menu. If we directly click Run button without prior clicking on the compile, then too the Objective C code will directly compile first and then it will show the output. The output will be shown in a Command Prompt. The format of the output will be same as shown in Xcode. Following is a sample code executed in Xcode and OBJCC IDE, output of the program is shows as follows: Code to be executed (Figure 4f): Figure 4b: OBJCC extended process flow. The output of the above program in OBJCC IDE is as follows (Figure 4g): The output of the program in MacOS X’s Xcode is as follows (Figure 4h): As the output is similar in both the IDEs, this made it possible to use OBJCC IDE as an alternate for Xcode in Microsoft Windows based Figure 4c: Menu options. operating systems. Comparison In this section, the table below represents the clear comparison between all the available Objective C Compiler. After few more researches, I came up with the comparison table between the existing compilers as shown below in Table 1. As mentioned before, the OBJCC IDE is able to run in windows working environment along with some Figure 4d: Code output area. additional feature and GUI interface. It also violates the necessity of any online platform for the working of objective c programs. However, we haven’t yet included the multi-file support feature in our OBJCC IDE, but would be considered in future developments. Future Scope OBJCC IDE meets the basic requirements for successfully Figure 4e: Code output area. compilation and execution of the Objective C codes in Microsoft Windows based operating system. There are some additional features that can be added later on to the OBJCC IDE to make the development more user friendly and efficient like adding multi-file support by which we could be able to develop multi-tier programs. Multiple file support will enable us to develop header files, properties, modular functions in different files and call them in a file through referencing. The other features those can be added to the OBJCC IDE are the Intellisense feature. With Intellisense feature, we don’t have to remember all the syntax; it will automatically give suggestions while Figure 4f: XCode editor. code. For compiling the code, we have a compile button provided in the top menu bar or we can use shortcut also Alt+F9 (Figure 4c). For compiling, the code will be sent to the GCC compiler back-end and the GCC compiler with the help of GNUStep libraries compiles the code and returns the message. The message is then redirected to the output window. Figure 4g: Output in OBJCC IDE. If the code does not contain any syntax error then output will be Int J Adv Technol Volume 7 • Issue 1 • 1000150 ISSN: 0976-4860 IJOAT, an open access journal Citation: Das S, Singh G, Kumar B (2016) Windows Based Graphical Objective C IDE. Int J Adv Technol 7: 150. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 Page 5 of 5 Tutorials basic IDE supports and the output produced by the proposed IDE is GCC CLI OBJCC IDE XCODE IDE compiler points coding similar to Xcode in MacOS. In the proposed IDE, there is no need to ground write a line for compilation like in GCC compiler, there are a Run button Windows and a Compile button available to do this just by clicking. Finally, the support     proposed model can replace GCC compiler by a GUI based IDE which Offline     is more user friendly. GUI Interface     References Function     1. http://www.tutorialspoint.com/codingground.htm Table 1: IDE comparison. 2. Brandon S, Leigh MS (2000) Next steps from NeXTSTEP: MusicKit and writing the codes. So, in future work there can be a planning to extend SoundKit in a new world. the features of OBJCC IDE by including the above features. 3. Muqri MR, James RL (2012) Objective-C versus Java for Smart Phone Applications. American Society for Engineering Education Conclusion 4. Gupta S, Puneet B (2013) Comparative study of C, Objective C, C++ In Microsoft window based operating systems, there was a lack of programming language. Int J Eng Comp Sci 2: 202-206. GUI based IDE for compiling and execution of Objective C programs. 5. Gulhane A, Shailesh M, Shaunak S, Chinmay G, Rakhi B (2014) Code converter We overcame with this issue by successfully implementing OBJCC GUI for android and ios. IJARCSSE 4: 1152-1156. based IDE that is developed using .NET technology and C# language, 6. Chisnall D (2014) Smalltalk in a C world. Sci Comput Program 96: 4-16. which have enabled us to write and compile Objective C codes in 7. Chisnall D (2009) A Modern Objective-C Runtime. J Object Tech 8: 221-240. Microsoft Windows. The IDE supports most of the features which a 8. http://www.gnustep.org/windows/installer.html Submit your next manuscript and get advantages of OMICS Group submissions Unique features: • Increased global visibility of articles through worldwide distribution and indexing • Showcasing recent research output in a timely and updated manner • Special issues on the current trends of scientific research Special features: • 700 Open Access Journals • 50,000 Editorial team • Rapid review process • Quality and quick editorial, review and publication processing • Indexing at PubMed (partial), Scopus, EBSCO, Index Copernicus, Google Scholar etc. • Sharing Option: Social Networking Enabled Citation: Das S, Singh G, Kumar B (2016) Windows Based Graphical • Authors, Reviewers and Editors rewarded with online Scientific Credits Objective C IDE. Int J Adv Technol 7: 150. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000150 • Better discount for your subsequent articles Submit your manuscript at: http://www.omicsonline.org/submission/ Int J Adv Technol Volume 7 • Issue 1 • 1000150 ISSN: 0976-4860 IJOAT, an open access journal