Programmer's Almanac

December 20

On this day in 1996, Apple acquired NeXT Software Inc for $400M. The acquisition brought Steve Jobs back to Apple, and NeXT Step operating system was used as the foundation of OS X.

The NeXT OS was written in Objective-C, an object oriented language with roots in C and smalltalk. Objective C features dynamic typing, binding, and loading. The hello world program in Objective C can be written like this:

�#include #include int main(int argc,char **argv) { �� id set = [Set new]; �� argv++;while (--argc) [set add:[String str:*argv++]]; �� [set do:{ :each | printf("hello, %s!\n",[each str]); }]; �� return 0; }

And, today in 1917 was the birthday of David Bohm, American quantum physicist. After helping on the Manhattan Project, he was later branded a communist and moved to Brazil. Besides, physics, he had philosophical theories related to the human brain operating using wave interference, like a hologram.

Bohm Quote: �The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.�

← December 19December 21 →

← back to December