来自Cocoa_(API)维基百科:

(重点)

Cocoa classes begin with the acronym "NS" (standing either for the NeXT-Sun creation of OpenStep, or for the original proprietary term for the OpenStep framework, NeXTSTEP): NSString, NSArray, etc. Foundation Kit, or more commonly simply Foundation, first appeared in OpenStep. On Mac OS X, it is based on Core Foundation. Foundation is a generic object-oriented library providing string and value manipulation, containers and iteration, distributed computing, run loops, and other functions that are not directly tied to the graphical user interface. The "NS" prefix, used for all classes and constants in the framework, comes from Cocoa's OPENSTEP heritage, which was jointly developed by NeXT and Sun.

它来自NeXTSTEP传统。

来自Cocoa_(API)维基百科:

(重点)

Cocoa classes begin with the acronym "NS" (standing either for the NeXT-Sun creation of OpenStep, or for the original proprietary term for the OpenStep framework, NeXTSTEP): NSString, NSArray, etc. Foundation Kit, or more commonly simply Foundation, first appeared in OpenStep. On Mac OS X, it is based on Core Foundation. Foundation is a generic object-oriented library providing string and value manipulation, containers and iteration, distributed computing, run loops, and other functions that are not directly tied to the graphical user interface. The "NS" prefix, used for all classes and constants in the framework, comes from Cocoa's OPENSTEP heritage, which was jointly developed by NeXT and Sun.

Cocoa框架的原始代码来自NeXTSTEP库基金会和AppKit(这些名称仍然被苹果的Cocoa框架使用)，NeXTSTEP的工程师选择用NS作为他们的符号前缀。

因为Objective-C是C的扩展，因此不像c++那样有名称空间，符号必须有一个唯一的前缀，这样它们就不会发生冲突。这对于在框架中定义的符号尤为重要。

如果您正在编写一个应用程序，以便您的代码可能只使用您的符号，那么您不必担心这个问题。但是如果您正在编写供他人使用的框架或库，您还应该为您的符号添加一个唯一的前缀。CocoaDev有一个页面，许多Cocoa社区的开发人员列出了他们“选择”的前缀。您可能也会发现这个SO讨论很有帮助。

Bill Bumgarner又名@bbum，谁应该知道，他在2005年的CocoaBuilder邮件列表上写道:

Sun是在NS前缀开始发挥作用之后才进入的。NS前缀出现在从NeXTSTEP 3.0到NeXTSTEP 4.0(也称为OpenStep)的公共api中。4.0之前，a 少数符号使用NX前缀，但大多数类提供 系统库根本没有前缀——List, Hashtable， 看来,等等……

似乎每个人都同意，NX (NeXT)这个前缀在1993/1994年之前一直被使用，苹果的文档中写道:

1994年9月发布的官方OpenStep API是第一个将API分离为Foundation和Application Kit的API，并且第一个使用“NS”前缀的API。

当NeXT定义NextStep API(与NextStep操作系统相反)时，他们使用了前缀NX，如NXConstantString。当他们使用Sun(不要与OpenStep操作系统混淆)编写OpenStep规范时，他们使用了NS前缀，就像在NSObject中一样。