Foundation Kit
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Foundation Kit
The Foundation Kit, or just Foundation for short, is an Objective-C framework in the OpenStep specification described by NeXT Computer, Inc.. It provides basic classes such as wrapper classes and data structure classes. This framework uses the prefix NS (for NeXTSTEP). It is also part of Cocoa and of the Swift standard library. Classes NSObject This class is the most common base class for Objective-C hierarchies and provides standard methods for working with objects by managing the memory associated with them and querying them. NSString and NSMutableString A class used for string manipulation, representing a Unicode string (most typically using UTF-16 as its internal format). NSString is immutable, and thus can only be initialized but not modified. NSMutableString is a modifiable version. NSValue and NSNumber NSValue is a wrapper class for C data types, and NSNumber is a wrapper class for C number data types such as int, double, and float. The data structures in Foun ...
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Objective-C
Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was selected by NeXT for its NeXTSTEP operating system. Due to Apple macOS’s direct lineage from NeXTSTEP, Objective-C was the standard language used, supported, and promoted by Apple for developing macOS and iOS applications (via their respective application programming interfaces ( APIs), Cocoa and Cocoa Touch) from 1997, when Apple purchased NeXT until the introduction of the Swift language in 2014. Objective-C programs developed for non-Apple operating systems or that are not dependent on Apple's APIs may also be compiled for any platform supported by GNU GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) or LLVM/ Clang. Objective-C source code 'messaging/implementation' program files usually have filename extensions, while Objective-C 'header/ ...
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OPENSTEP
OpenStep is an object-oriented application programming interface (API) specification developed by NeXT. It provides a framework for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and developing software applications. OpenStep was designed to be platform-independent, allowing developers to write code that could run on multiple operating systems, including NeXTSTEP, Windows NT, and various Unix-based systems. It has influenced the development of other GUI frameworks, such as Cocoa for macOS, and GNUstep. OpenStep was principally developed by NeXT and Sun Microsystems, to allow advanced application development on Sun's operating systems, specifically Solaris. NeXT produced a version of OpenStep for its own Mach-based Unix OS, stylized in all capital letters as OPENSTEP. The software libraries that shipped with OPENSTEP are a superset of the original OpenStep specification, including many features from the original NeXTSTEP. History Workstations from Sun Microsystems were originally ...
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NeXT
NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later developed web software. It was founded in 1985 by CEO Steve Jobs, the Apple Computer co-founder who had been forcibly removed from Apple that year. NeXT debuted with the NeXT Computer in 1988, and released the NeXTcube and smaller NeXTstation in 1990. The series had relatively limited sales, with only about 50,000 total units shipped. Nevertheless, the object-oriented programming and graphical user interface were highly influential trendsetters of computer innovation. NeXT partnered with Sun Microsystems to create a API, programming environment called OpenStep, which decoupled the NeXTSTEP operating system's application layer to host it on third-party operating systems. In 1993, NeXT withdrew from the hardware industry to concentrate on marketing ...
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UIKit
UIKit is an application development environment and graphical user interface toolkit from Apple Inc. used to build apps for the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS operating systems. UIKit provides an abstraction layer of iOS, the operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. UIKit is insipired by the AppKit found in the macOS Cocoa API toolset and, like it, is primarily written in the Objective-C language. UIKit allows the use of hardware and features that are not found in macOS computers and are thus unique to the iOS range of devices. Just like AppKit, UIKit follows a Model–View–Controller (MVC) software architecture. UIKit contains a different set of graphical control elements from AppKit. Tools for developing applications based on UIKit are included in the iOS SDK. UIKit in relation to other layers iOS, watchOS, and tvOS technologies can be seen as a set of layers, with UIKit at the highest level and the core operating system / kernel at the bottom. ...
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Application Kit
AppKit (formally Application Kit) is a graphical user interface toolkit. It initially served as the UI framework for NeXTSTEP. Along with Foundation and Display PostScript, it became one of the core parts of the OpenStep specification of APIs. Later, AppKit and Foundation became part of Cocoa, the Objective-C API framework of macOS. GNUstep, GNU's implementation of the OpenStep/Cocoa API, also contains an implementation of the AppKit API. AppKit comprises a collection of Objective-C classes and protocols that can be used to build an application in OpenStep/Cocoa. These classes can also be used in Swift through its Objective-C bridge. Xcode has built-in functionality for developing a Cocoa application using AppKit, including the ability to visually design user interfaces with Interface Builder. It relies heavily on patterns like reference types, delegation, notifications, target–action, and model–view–controller. A sign of the NeXTSTEP heritage, AppKit's classes a ...
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Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, packaged as a Linux distribution (distro), which includes the kernel and supporting system software and library (computing), libraries—most of which are provided by third parties—to create a complete operating system, designed as a clone of Unix and released under the copyleft GPL license. List of Linux distributions, Thousands of Linux distributions exist, many based directly or indirectly on other distributions; popular Linux distributions include Debian, Fedora Linux, Linux Mint, Arch Linux, and Ubuntu, while commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise, and ChromeOS. Linux distributions are frequently used in server platforms. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free ...
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Android (operating System)
Android is an operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen-based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computer, tablets. Android has historically been developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, but its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google. First released in 2008, Android is the world's Usage share of operating systems, most widely used operating system; the latest version, released on June 10, 2025, is Android 16. At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary software, proprietary Android version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which ...
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Core Foundation
Core Foundation (also called CF) is a C application programming interface (API) written by Apple Inc. for its operating systems, and is a mix of low-level routines and wrapper functions. Most Core Foundation routines follow a certain naming convention that deal with opaque objects, for example CFDictionaryRef for functions whose names begin with CFDictionary, and these objects are often reference counted (manually) through CFRetain and CFRelease. Internally, Core Foundation forms the base of the types in the Objective-C standard library and the Carbon API. The most prevalent use of Core Foundation is for passing its own primitive types for data, including raw bytes, Unicode strings, numbers, calendar dates, and UUIDs, as well as collections such as arrays, sets, and dictionaries, to numerous macOS C routines, primarily those that are GUI-related. At the operating system level Core Foundation also provides standardized application preferences management through CFProperty ...
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Darling (software)
Darling is a free and open-source macOS compatibility layer for Linux. It duplicates functions of macOS by providing alternative implementations of the libraries and frameworks that macOS programs call. This method of duplication differs from other methods that might also be considered emulation, where macOS programs run in a virtual machine. Darling has been called the counterpart to WINE for running macOS apps. The project started in the summer of 2012 and builds on a previous project, named maloader, which was discontinued due to a lack of time. The layer has been shown to work with many console apps, such as Midnight Commander, The Unarchiver, Python, etc. on the layer, but it also has basic support for graphical applications based on the Cocoa framework. Darling has the ability to extract Apple Disk Images. The project aims to support iOS applications in the future. Architecture At the entry of the Darling system is a loader for Mach-O binaries, the executable form ...
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MacOS
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of Desktop computer, desktop and laptop computers, it is the Usage share of operating systems#Desktop and laptop computers, second most widely used desktop OS, after Microsoft Windows and ahead of all Linux distributions, including ChromeOS and SteamOS. , the most recent release of macOS is MacOS Sequoia, macOS 15 Sequoia, the 21st major version of macOS. Mac OS X succeeded classic Mac OS, the primary Mac operating systems, Macintosh operating system from 1984 to 2001. Its underlying architecture came from NeXT's NeXTSTEP, as a result of NeXT#1997–2006: Acquisition by Apple, Apple's acquisition of NeXT, which also brought Steve Jobs back to Apple. The first desktop version, Mac OS X 10.0, was released on March 24, 2001. Mac ...
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GNUstep
GNUstep is a free software implementation of the Cocoa (formerly OpenStep) Objective-C frameworks, widget toolkit, and application development tools for Unix-like operating systems and Microsoft Windows. It is part of the GNU Project. GNUstep features a cross-platform, object-oriented IDE. Apart from the default Objective-C interface, GNUstep also has bindings for Java, Ruby, GNU Guile and Scheme. The GNUstep developers track some additions to Apple's Cocoa to remain compatible. The roots of the GNUstep application interface are the same as the roots of Cocoa: NeXTSTEP and OpenStep. GNUstep thus predates Cocoa, which emerged when Apple acquired NeXT's technology and incorporated it into the development of the original Mac OS X, while GNUstep was initially an effort by GNU developers to replicate the technically ambitious NeXTSTEP's programmer-friendly features. History GNUstep began when Paul Kunz and others at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center wanted to port Hi ...
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Cocoa Touch
UIKit is an application development environment and graphical user interface toolkit from Apple Inc. used to build apps for the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS operating systems. UIKit provides an abstraction layer of iOS, the operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. UIKit is insipired by the AppKit found in the macOS Cocoa API toolset and, like it, is primarily written in the Objective-C language. UIKit allows the use of hardware and features that are not found in macOS computers and are thus unique to the iOS range of devices. Just like AppKit, UIKit follows a Model–View–Controller (MVC) software architecture. UIKit contains a different set of graphical control elements from AppKit. Tools for developing applications based on UIKit are included in the iOS SDK. UIKit in relation to other layers iOS, watchOS, and tvOS technologies can be seen as a set of layers, with UIKit at the highest level and the core operating system / kernel at th ...
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