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macOS Can I use C++ With Cocoa

T

Techguy172

macrumors 68000
Original poster
I would like to know if its possible to C++ to code an application using the Cocoa Programming or do i have to use C

Thanks
 
A few years ago I wrote a hybrid Obj-C/C++ application. It was a port of a final project I did one of my early CS classes. I used Obj-C to handle GUI events and kept the C++ basically the same. The big problem with Obj-C that I ran into was that file i/o cannot handle C++ strings. I had to go on a character by character basis (I could have used character arrays but this was faster).
 
dethl said:
A few years ago I wrote a hybrid Obj-C/C++ application. It was a port of a final project I did one of my early CS classes. I used Obj-C to handle GUI events and kept the C++ basically the same. The big problem with Obj-C that I ran into was that file i/o cannot handle C++ strings. I had to go on a character by character basis (I could have used character arrays but this was faster).
Click to expand...

It depends on what type of strings you used. CFString (a C++ Carbon class) is toll free bridged to NSString (a cocoa Obj-C class) and you can use the two interchangeably.

I have code that does just that.
 
I have a project that has CPP files and Cocoa in it. I don't remember what you have to do to get it to work besides rename the Cocoa files with a *.mm instead of *.m.
 
Ok so basicaly im stuck with objective C, This leaves me a problem I want to build an application that works universaly with all operating systems but it looks like im going to have to rewrite it if i want to. Is this true
 
Techguy172 said:
Ok so basicaly im stuck with objective C, This leaves me a problem I want to build an application that works universaly with all operating systems but it looks like im going to have to rewrite it if i want to. Is this true
Click to expand...

yes, you can use java for that.
 
dethl said:
A few years ago I wrote a hybrid Obj-C/C++ application. It was a port of a final project I did one of my early CS classes. I used Obj-C to handle GUI events and kept the C++ basically the same. The big problem with Obj-C that I ran into was that file i/o cannot handle C++ strings. I had to go on a character by character basis (I could have used character arrays but this was faster).
Click to expand...

You could easily convert the std::strings to NSStrings and use the Cocoa output. Or, convert the NSSTrings to std::strings and use the standard C++ output.
 
How about using cpp files in already built cocoa application ... can I use both languages - objective c and c++ in one project ?
 
Qt

Techguy172 said:
Ok so basicaly im stuck with objective C, This leaves me a problem I want to build an application that works universaly with all operating systems but it looks like im going to have to rewrite it if i want to. Is this true
Click to expand...

Maybe QT will be more to your liking.
 
Techguy172 said:
Ok so basicaly im stuck with objective C, This leaves me a problem I want to build an application that works universaly with all operating systems but it looks like im going to have to rewrite it if i want to. Is this true
Click to expand...

It's probably a good idea to keep the UI separate from the actual application (if you're developing an application for Apple's "48-bit" Operating System Tiger, then that's the only option anyway).
Keep the actual application in a separate process, and exchange data with the UI process using IPC, shared memory, or something similar.

(see http://developer.apple.com/macosx/64bit.html, "Adding a GUI to a 64-bit Application")
 
weg said:
It's probably a good idea to keep the UI separate from the actual application (if you're developing an application for Apple's "48-bit" Operating System Tiger, then that's the only option anyway).
Keep the actual application in a separate process, and exchange data with the UI process using IPC, shared memory, or something similar.

(see http://developer.apple.com/macosx/64bit.html, "Adding a GUI to a 64-bit Application")
Click to expand...

There are easier ways to keep a clean OM/UI separation without having to run two processes.

If you have a clean library with externally-linkable C functions, you can use that for the object model, and then just wrap Obj-C around it/etc... C++ gets trickier, but can be done as well. Link this platform-neutral library statically (or even dynamically) with the UI host and you don't get the overhead of IPC.
 
Adding C++ to a Cocoa app in XCode

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but many of the answers to the original question talk about building apps using Objective-C++ so that you can include C++ routines while also using the Cocoa framework for the GUI. But how do you create an Objective-C++ app with XCode? I'm using XCode 4.4.1 with OS X 10.7.4. I can see how to create a new C++ command line tool but I can't see a Cocoa application template that uses Objective-C++.

I realise this thread is getting old. Am I missing something or what has changed with XCode?
 
Last edited:
Not sure what you want to do, but you can use a C++ file with a regular Objective-C project. Add the C++ file to the project then change the extension to .mm and that should be it.

If you're wanting something else let me know.
 
Nutter said:
Sorry to be pedantic, Mongo, but I'm going to be anyway. CFString is neither C++ nor Carbon!
Click to expand...

Sorry to be pedantic, but CFString is Carbon; you can use it in C, C++, Objective-C and Objective-C++, but it is really deprecated.

You can just mix std::string and NSString*, and add a category written in Objective-C++ with two methods

Code: 
- (std::string) asStdString;
+ (NSString*) stringWithStdString:(const std::string&) stdString;

And there is no such thing as an Objective-C++ project. Just create a Cocoa project, then add files with suffix .c (C), .m (Objective-C), .cpp (C++) or .mm (Objective-C++) as you feel fit. Source files that use both C++ objects and Objective-C objects just end in .mm.
 
Techguy172 said:
Ok so basicaly im stuck with objective C, This leaves me a problem I want to build an application that works universaly with all operating systems but it looks like im going to have to rewrite it if i want to. Is this true
Click to expand...

Use something called Qt. It's for C++ and very capable. You can find it at http://qt.nokia.com/

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I'm sorry bu guys, we're knocking on a thread from 2007!
 
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