If you know C, Objective-C is very little syntax on top of it. I learnt it over a weekend ~12 years ago by mostly reading Apple's programming guide[1] and then the Objective-C runtime reference[2] and just playing with some code and GDB. That was enough for me to lead a small team of iOS devs and we built slew of popular apps for the next two years. My background prior to that was in desktop GUI development using Qt and C++.

I don't work in the iOS/macOS dev field anymore, but I've tried learning Swift in a similar fashion over weekends, to no avail. Incidentally, do you have any recommendations for learning Swift for someone coming from a C/ modern C++ background?

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Co... [2]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/objectivec/objecti...

Some reasons:

Objective-C compiles much faster. Fewer compiler errors. Fewer compiler crashes. Older projects still compile. The debugger is much more reliable. The entire Objective-C toolchain is more solid, because it's older, mature, and changes less.

Also, easier compatibility with cross-platform C and C++ source.

Once you get past the square brackets notation, ObjC is a really delightfiul language to code in largely because of it's message-passing object system. In many ways Swift was a step forward, and more approachable for beginners, but for me it's also a few steps backwards for programmer happiness.

Objective-C has an unusual syntax but is easy to master. Swift has an easy syntax but is hard to master.

Objective-C can feel easier to different types of developers for different reasons.

For disciplined developers who always dot their I’s and cross their T’s, it feels easier because they can write code with full “trust” from the compiler that the developer knows what they’re doing.

For undisciplined developers, it can feel easier because the compiler isn’t calling them out on code smells and inattentiveness to nullability and types.

I’d like to think I’m somewhere in the middle (as I suspect most devs are) and for me Swift feels easier in most respects, even with its everything-and-the-kitchen-sink nature compared to Objective-C’s more spartan approach.

Swift is very strict. Objective-C lets you get away with more. E.g. optionals in Swift are kind of annoying. if let, guard let, blah blah blah. I like Swift more than Obj-C, but Obj-C is a fine language in its own right. Definitely easier to write once you get a hang of the notation. Swift may have a more familiar syntax, but it forces you to think about more things when writing code.