What are the advantages of using Objective-C over C++
c++, objective-c, programming-languages
Solution
Like many others I've just started looking at Obj-C due to iPhone. I've done a lot of C++ and C# and from what I can see Obj-C has a basically different approach to OO in that it adds Smalltalk-like messaging to C. Like C++ it's basically still C-compatible but the OO extensions let you send any message to any object. In that sense it's not statically typed like C++ and C# where the things an object can do are tied to the class it is. In Obj-C you can send a message to an object even if it doesn't support it. The object can then forward it if it doesn't know what to do with it.
The really cool thing is that you can add interfaces (protocols) at runtime and you can add your own handlers that intercept and hide message handlers for existing classes.
All in all there's a lot more flexibility when it comes to message handling, more like what you would do in Ruby or Smalltalk. Whether it's a good idea to have this type of OO grafted onto C or not I can't tell yet, in some ways the C++ approach meshes better with the original idea of C but on the other hand the Obj-C OO approach is more what OO purists like.
Problem
I have heard mention of Objective-C but I have never used it myself. I was curious what everyones opinion of it was in general and also in relation to C++. Are there any types of projects where it would be more useful or less useful?