Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) Review
I used to do some programming about 10 yrs ago in C++ and I thought that I was fairly good at it. Well, here I am, now 10 yrs later, and I've forgot a lot of concepts and ideas with C++ especially pointers. Anyways, now I'm on a Mac and thought it would be awesome if I could learn to write applications since I have a growing list of things I'd like to make.
Well, I picked up this book last year and started going through it... unfortunately, my past experience didn't "come back to me" and I was lost very early on in the book. So I ended up purchasing "Programming in Objective-C 2.0" by Stephen G. Kochan because they take you from not knowing anything, to general Objective-C programming (not necessarily Cocoa). But it fulfilled my need, which was to learn Objective-C and brush up on my programming skills in general.
Anyways, now that I've gone through most of that book, I felt that it was time to pick this book back up again. It's going good so far, yes, some things are still a little foreign to me, but it helps to read it more than once and think about what Aaron is saying.
One area that I think this book lacks is in support. The website does a decent job of listing errata and Aaron does point out a couple differences between XCode 3 (when the book was written) to XCode 3.2.1 (which is the current version).
However, on his website, he has "interactive forums" which is not at all a typical forum that one would expect. It's a long list of comments that people can leave back and forth. When it comes to looking for help on a specific topic, you have to search through all the comments -- it's a huge mess.
What I have done as a response to this, is that I have set up my own forums online if anyone else wants to go through this book with me. I know I'm not too experienced with Cocoa, but I'm willing to help anyone as much as I can. The author himself is even invited to come and join if he likes.
The forums are at cocoacommunity{dot}com
(Sorry, I know this seems like a shameful plug.)
Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) Features
- ISBN13: 9780321503619
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Rating : 
Price : $49.99
Offer Price : $24.88
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Overviews
The best-selling introduction to Cocoa, once again updated to cover the latest Mac programming technologies, and still enthusiastically recommended by experienced Mac OS X developers.
“Aaron’s book is the gold standard for Mac OS X programming books—beautifully written, and thoughtfully sculpted. The best book on Leopard development.”
—Scott Stevenson, www.theocacao.com
“This is the first book I’d recommend for anyone wanting to learn Cocoa from scratch. Aaron’s one of the few (perhaps only) full-time professional Cocoa instructors, and his teaching experience shows in the book.”
—Tim Burks, software developer and creator of the Nu programming language, www.programming.nu
“If you’re a UNIX or Windows developer who picked up a Mac OS X machine recently in hopes of developing new apps or porting your apps to Mac users, this book should be strongly considered as one of your essential reference and training tomes.”
—Kevin H. Spencer, Apple Certified Technical Coordinator
If you’re developing applications for Mac OS X, Cocoa® Programming for Mac® OS X, Third Edition, is the book you’ve been waiting to get your hands on. If you’re new to the Mac environment, it’s probably the book you’ve been told to read first. Covering the bulk of what you need to know to develop full-featured applications for OS X, written in an engaging tutorial style, and thoroughly class-tested to assure clarity and accuracy, it is an invaluable resource for any Mac programmer.
Specifically, Aaron Hillegass introduces the three most commonly used Mac developer tools: Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments. He also covers the Objective-C language and the major design patterns of Cocoa. Aaron illustrates his explanations with exemplary code, written in the idioms of the Cocoa community, to show you how Mac programs should be written. After reading this book, you will know enough to understand and utilize Apple’s online documentation for your own unique needs. And you will know enough to write your own stylish code.
Updated for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, this revised edition includes coverage of Xcode 3, Objective-C 2, Core Data, the garbage collector, and CoreAnimation.
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Specifications
Suitable for anyone with a little C/C++ programming experience who wants to create software for the newest Mac platform, Cocoa Programming for Max OS X provides a slickly packaged and approachable tutorial that will get you started creating state-of-the-art Mac programs.
The smart presentation style and easy-to-understood code examples help make this text an excellent resource. (It also helps that Aaron Hillegass is a truly engaging writer.) He first explains how the legacy NeXTSTEP platform has evolved into Cocoa on the Mac OS X. Beginning with short examples illustrating the actual Cocoa tools in action, the author gets you started with simple programs for a random-number generator, a raise calculator, and other comprehensible examples. Rather than just listing APIs and classes, the emphasis is on hands-on Cocoa development. An early standout section provides a nice tour of essential Objective-C features you'll need to know to use Cocoa effectively.
This book covers the several dozen built-in Cocoa controls, from basic text and buttons to more advanced widgets (including lists and tables). Subsequent sections look at user interface design (using the Interface Builder to create nib files) and how to add programmatic processing behind the visual layout. Along the way, the author introduces coverage of essential Cocoa APIs for strings, arrays, and dictionaries. Later chapters look at saving and loading documents (and user defaults) and how to tap the powerful graphics abilities available in Cocoa. (Besides image and basic drawing, there are short sections on PDF support and printing.)
More advanced user interface features get their due by the end of the book, including cutting and pasting data through the Cocoa pasteboard and also adding drag-and-drop support. Final sections look at creating new controls for use with the Interface Builder palette, and, briefly, how to use Java with Cocoa (an option that the author doesn't necessarily recommend). Throughout this text, the author provides more advanced, challenging problems at the end of each chapter for the "more curious" reader. This approach keeps beginners from getting lost in the details of Cocoa development, but gives the more advanced reader something more to do.
While there are comparably fewer books on Mac OS X compared to other platforms, readers are lucky to have this one available. Anyone who wants to get onboard with Cocoa development will be well served by this title. It's a fine tutorial that earns high marks for its approachable, clear examples and an excellent presentation by an author who knows his stuff and, better yet, knows how to teach it to others. --Richard Dragan
Topics covered: Brief history of the Mac platform (from NeXTSTEP to Mac OS X), basic Cocoa development in Objective-C, using Project Builder and Interface Builder tools, tutorial to Objective-C (instances, variables, using classes, arrays and other containers, custom classes), the Objective-C debugger, basic Cocoa controls (building user interfaces), tables and data sources, event handling and delegates, archiving documents (encoding and decoding, saving and loading documents), Nib files, window panels, saving and retrieving user defaults (including using dictionary classes), notifications (observers and more on delegates), alert panels, localization (including string tables, a English and French example, the nibtool utility), custom views and drawing, drawing images and mouse events (plus coordinates systems and autoscrolling views), responders and keyboard events, fonts and strings (including attributed strings and PDF support), pasteboards and nil-targeted actions, using Objective-C categories (a code reuse feature), drag-and-drop support, timers, sheets and drawers, formatting strings, printing support, on-the-fly menu updating, text editing with text views, basic tutorial for using Java with Cocoa, and custom Interface Builder palettes (and inspectors).
Customer Review
waste of money and time - Lorelei - USA
I regret having purchased this book. It was a waste of money. I previously purchased Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) by Stephen G. Kochan, which while not perfect is an excellent book to get one started learning Objective C programming. I thought this Cocoa book would be the next step, but it is horrible. The author starts out telling you to do a bunch of steps to write a program and does not explain why you are doing them, but even worse HE LEAVES STEPS OUT so that you then have to try to figure out what steps he failed to mention. I tried to fill in the blanks myself but still could not get his program to run, making the time I spent on the first three chapters a total waste. I really gave it a shot but have decided that this book is not worth continuing with, and it was therefore a waste of my money. I'll be purchasing different books on Cocoa.
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