Rating: 
Summary: More than adequate Cocoa introduction
Review: Finding the online Cocoa documentation (that comes with the Dev Tools) to be seriously lacking, I went to the bookstore and quickly found this book. Just judging from the table of contents, it's clear the book covers a wide variety of topics, more than enough to get any programmer off the ground with Cocoa. The book employs a tried-and-true programming book style, introducing each topic with a general discussion, and then following by giving you code to type into your program. There are four parts to the book, with the first part being an overview of various things, and each subsequent part containing several chapters in which you study Cocoa features pertinent to a specific project, which you build throughout each chapter.I have only one beef with this book: it may not be enough for very novice programmers. I have previously programmed the Mac Toolbox and I have a lot of C and C++ experience, so I usually knew what was going on. But someone with less experience may have trouble because frequently the book will just tell you to enter a bunch of code, and not really give an adequate explanation of what's happening. Of course, even experienced programmers may find this book a little too "hold my hand and follow me" to actually get started with Cocoa programming. But the book does do a very good job of getting you familiar with the classes and methods you'll be needing to use when you do get off the ground. I highly recommend buying this book, as my experience with it has been very positive. If you do not get the confidence you need to build your own Cocoa apps just from this book, though, then I (as well as the authors of this book) recommend "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass as a supplement. Together the two will give you an even more comprehensive knowledge of Cocoa, as well as two sources to consult if you get confused (two is always better than one). (In addition, before reading any Cocoa book, I recommend reading "The Objective-C Programming Language", which can be found in the Developer Tools documentation under Cocoa. Most Cocoa books do provide a brief Objective-C tutorial, but it will be to your advantage if you already know the language, as these tutorials are not terribly adequate.)
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous book for the right person
Review: I adore this book: it does exactly what I wanted it to do, and it does so compellingly - I've worked straight through the whole thing. The example programs are a great step by step introduction to integrating necessary UI functionality into a program. The exercises are challenging, requiring thought, a willingness to rummage through class definitions, and experimentation. But make sure that what I wanted it to do is what you want it to do. I have a fair amount of experience as a programmer in a lot of different languages, but no experience coding in a desktop windowing environment. This book has rapidly brought me to a place where I feel confident that I will be able to build my own Cocoa applications, and have a real understanding of the underlying architecture. Don't buy this book if you aren't already very comfortable with at least one programming language. If that language isn't ANSI C, plan on working a little harder to grok some of the more abstruse C-ness. Don't expect a course on obect-oriented progamming. Don't expect lessons in how to use a debugger. Don't expect spoon feeding - as it claims on the back cover, it's a book for serious developers. I'm glad I wasn't put off by the reviews complaining of errors. I haven't found anything harsher than a minor distraction. What I have found is that I would sometimes reach the point in the discussion of a new concept where I had to stop and ask, "But why did they do it *that* way?" After putting effort into arriving at my own conclusion, I would invariably find that in the next paragraph my question was answered. Definitely not "for Dummies," but definitely worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous book for the right person
Review: I adore this book: it does exactly what I wanted it to do, and it does so compellingly - I've worked straight through the whole thing. The example programs are a great step by step introduction to integrating necessary UI functionality into a program. The exercises are challenging, requiring thought, a willingness to rummage through class definitions, and experimentation. But make sure that what I wanted it to do is what you want it to do. I have a fair amount of experience as a programmer in a lot of different languages, but no experience coding in a desktop windowing environment. This book has rapidly brought me to a place where I feel confident that I will be able to build my own Cocoa applications, and have a real understanding of the underlying architecture. Don't buy this book if you aren't already very comfortable with at least one programming language. If that language isn't ANSI C, plan on working a little harder to grok some of the more abstruse C-ness. Don't expect a course on obect-oriented progamming. Don't expect lessons in how to use a debugger. Don't expect spoon feeding - as it claims on the back cover, it's a book for serious developers. I'm glad I wasn't put off by the reviews complaining of errors. I haven't found anything harsher than a minor distraction. What I have found is that I would sometimes reach the point in the discussion of a new concept where I had to stop and ask, "But why did they do it *that* way?" After putting effort into arriving at my own conclusion, I would invariably find that in the next paragraph my question was answered. Definitely not "for Dummies," but definitely worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Very helpful with good examples but way too many errors
Review: I have found this book to be a very helpful guide to learning Cocoa. The examples are easy to dive into, and I have found that I get more and more from them as I return and review them for the third or fourth time. Unfortunately, Building Cocoa Applications is also riddled with errors. Make sure you get a copy of the unconfirmed errors from O'Reilly's web site. As you dig into this book, these comments and corrections are invaluable.
Rating:
Summary: Should have been a lot thicker...
Review: I have to admit that this was the book that finally got me over the newbie hump, but it took a lot more work on my part than it should have. I would definitely recommend looking at the "unconfirmed error reports" page at O'Reilly, to benefit from the efforts of many readers who have updated, corrected, and clarified this book. Still, it is frustrating to read the end of chapter assignments because of the knowledge gap between the text and the questions. I would consider this less of a complete course and more of a guide, leaving it to you to fill in with knowledge from other sources.
Rating:
Summary: Well written book...
Review: I tried using Aaron Hillegass' book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, but this book was much easier to follow for me. I don't mean to rag on Hillegass' book - it's still well written - just a not quite as easy for me. This book takes the time to *explain* the concepts before diving into a program. However, if you're looking for a reference book, this isn't it. This book will teach you how to use Cocoa by taking you through the construction of three fairly fancy applications - a calculator, and two word processing oriented programs.
Rating:
Summary: Well written book...
Review: I tried using Aaron Hillegass' book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, but this book was much easier to follow for me. I don't mean to rag on Hillegass' book - it's still well written - just a not quite as easy for me. This book takes the time to *explain* the concepts before diving into a program. However, if you're looking for a reference book, this isn't it. This book will teach you how to use Cocoa by taking you through the construction of three fairly fancy applications - a calculator, and two word processing oriented programs.
Rating:
Summary: Learn by example?
Review: I was extremely excited for this books debut. It started off great (even with the errors) for the first 5 chapters. After that it really seemed like the writers got lazy. Instead of explaining things out they threw up the source code with pictures. They don't explain the most important ideas clearly after these chapters. I do give this book three stars for a few reasons. It is much more understandable then Learn Cocoa and does offer some great deal of information understandable to the super advanced programmer. It does have very understandable instructions with Interface Builder and Project builder... so you do mater the applications with this book. Out of the books released today I'd say it ranks a distant 4th.
Rating:
Summary: Clear presentation of Cocoa programming
Review: I'm about half-way working through this book and I'm liking it alot. It's much better than Learning Cocoa. In the first half of the book, the programming examples are building on the same project, which is nice because one can slowly develop a more complex program. In addition, the book provides some additional insight into Cocoa's way of doing things and some intricacies of Objective-C. The second major project in the book involves using lex and yacc as an expression evaluator -- this is not to say that this book requires knowledge or teaches those tools, but that the authors are stepping through a reasonably complex project and using various tools to help solve it.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the effort
Review: I've been meaning to learn Objective C, Interface Builder and Project Builder for years. From back in the days of Rhapsody, and before when I'd bought books on NextStep programming. Always intended to do so, that is, until I received this book at Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference. And now after typing my way through the book's source code, I'm comfortable with Objective C's oddball syntax, understand how to wire up an application in Interface Builder and have confidence I'll soon be making quality Cocoa applications of my own. I've already started writing a freedb client. Obviously, it would be nice for me if the book explored network programming or the IOKit, but it concentrated on the fundamentals which nearly all applications share: windows, menus, drawing, printing, preferences, clipboards, documents, icons, etc. I can figure it out from here. So get off the fence, it's time to learn Cocoa.
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