Do Web developers Need to Know Objective-C?
NO, web developers should not bother to learn Objective-C, it is not directly used in web development, and no web developer writes direct Objective-C code for web applications, though Objective-C provides a lot of advantages, it is not meant for web developers.
Any full web development course or training does not include working with Objective-C. Web developers work with high-level programming languages and though Objective-C is a high-level programming language, it is not suitable for web development.
UNDERSTANDING THE OBJECTIVE-C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
Objective-C is a general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language. Objective-C is the superset of the C programming language and it provides object-oriented capabilities and a dynamic runtime.
Since Objective-C is a superset of C, it is possible to run C code and libraries through an Objective-C compiler. This is a great advantage for both Objective-C and C developers.
Objective-C was developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the 1980s. Before its replacement by Swift in 2014, Objective-C was the primary programming language supported by Apple for developing macOS and iOS applications using their respective APIs, Cocoa, and Cocoa Touch.
Objective-C can be used to program operating systems, network services, mobile applications, Desktop applications, Video Games, etc.
UNDERSTANDING WEB DEVELOPMENT
Web Development on the other hand is the “work involved in developing a website for the Internet or an intranet. Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web applications, e-commerce platforms, and social network services.”
A web developer is concerned with the front-facing side and the server-side logic on the website or application. Web developers use high-level programming languages and frameworks to achieve this.
For the client-side of the web application, Web developers use HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Other frontend frameworks and libraries such as React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, etc. are also heavily used.
On the server-side, web developers use languages and frameworks such as PHP, Python, Ruby, Java, Golang, Node.js, Ruby on Rails, Django, Laravel, and many others to program the server-side logic of web applications.
Web developers are also knowledgeable in the use of databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, SQLite, Redis, etc. Web Developers can create and use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to extend web app features and access third-party data for their web applications.
You can learn more about becoming a Full-Stack Web Developer in our article How to Become a Self-taught Web Developer (Step by Step).
It can be seen from the above that Objective-C is not really needed to become a full-Stack Web developer. Web Developers work with high-level programming languages and tools such as PHP, C#, Python, Node.js, etc. The lack of packages and libraries for web development in Objective-C will make it very difficult to work on web-based projects, you will literally have to start from scratch.
You are not any less of a Web Developer if you do not know Objective-C, actually, you don’t even need Objective-C for web development. You will still be able to write amazing Web Applications with other programming languages and frameworks. So, do not waste your valuable time learning Objective-C for web development.
But, if you want to work on macOS or iOS applications, learning objective-C can lay a good foundation, you must bear in mind though that Swift is preferable for developing macOS and IOS applications.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Objective-C is not required for web development at all, there are many Web developers who have worked on some of the biggest applications for some of the biggest companies and have never written a single line of code in Objective-C.
Though Objective-C is a general-purpose programming language, it is not suitable for web development.
