The Core Image API

Core Image has an Objective-C interface. To work with Core Image, your code creates Objective-C objects representing concepts like an image or a filter and sends messages to those objects.

As an Objective-C API, Core Image uses the same object ownership model and naming conventions shared by all Objective-C interfaces. The Core Image classes begin with the solidly predictable prefix, CI.

One important note: while the Core Image API is accessed through Objective-C, it is not tied to the Cocoa application frameworks at all. Do not confuse the Objective-C language with Cocoa! The Cocoa application framework uses Objective-C in its interface, but that does not mean that all Objective-C interfaces on the system are Cocoa interfaces. In particular, Carbon applications are free to use Core Image too. They will have to include some Objective-C or Objective-C++ files, but they need not use any Cocoa classes.

Some readers may not be familiar with Objective-C. The language is a straightforward implementation of object-oriented programming, built on top of C but drawing some syntax cues from Smalltalk. Developers familiar with C and object-oriented concepts should have no trouble grasping the basic syntax needed to make effective use of Objective-C in a few hours.

If you are unfamiliar with Objective-C and wish to use Core Image, read Apple's introduction to Objective-C at

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/index.html

Additionally, there are several good, third-party books on Cocoa programming that also cover Objective-C. Any of them will provide enough information about Objective-C that you could easily apply that knowledge to the Core Image API.

This concludes the discussion about this book and about some of the more mundane aspects of working with Quartz 2D. Now to begin a discussion of Quartz 2D in earnest. You will hopefully enjoy the presentation and find it valuable!