Had Apple not bought NeXT then NeXTStep probably would have sadly faded into irrelevance like the Amiga, BeOS and Plan9.
But we'll never know.
One could argue (and I will,
) that had Apple not bought NeXTStep, then probably apple would have faded into irrelevance.
The alternative on the table at the time as BeOS, but that lacked any real software at the time, had no real world usage and wasn't a mature software platform. Plus the NeXTStep deal meant that Apple got Steve Jobs back, and he was the only arsehole capable of fighting Bill Gate.
One day I'll give ObjC yet another chance and it will finally click into place and I'll begin to love it. Maybe.
Once you get over the syntax (which took me months), it really is awesome... That said all my recent work has been in Obj-C++, which gives me the best of both worlds