Write an Objective-C method, and a c function, when writing for the iPhone?

Question

When using XCode for writing for the iphone SDK... like a simple function that accepts a text-string URL and visits the website, and returns the HTML... which is better?

1. Use Objective-C and write a "method" that accepts an NSString and returns an NSString. or
2. Use C and write a "function" that accepts a string and returns a string.

How do I decide which to use... here... and in any of my code?

Answer 1

Typically you would write new iPhone code in Objective-C.

Answer 2

Unless performance is a serious concern, you should use whatever is going to make the most sense when you come back to it 6 months later and need to make a change.

Answer 3

If I recall correctly, even if you write all your code in C, you have to wrap it in Objective-C to work on the iPhone.

Answer 4

For your particular example, you could probably get away with using [NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:encoding:error]

In general, write according to intended use. If you are going to be calling it from C code, or are interested in cross platform compatibility, write it in C. If you are calling from ObjC, or would like the input/result to be easily used with Apple's ObjC frameworks, write it in ObjC.

The normal pattern is to develop as much as possible in ObjC, and dive down to the C layers only for what's not possible using the higher level ObjC frameworks, so on that basis the recommended approach for all new code would be to use ObjC