Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X

Rating:
Summary: Getting started in Cocoa
Review: First, I have to say I loved this book, I actually read half of it on a trip, not being in front of my computer, and still enjoyed the clear style and the gradual addition of new concepts and tools, chapter after chapter. Then I could hardly wait to be back home and start doing it for real.

Now for the potential buyer.

WHAT IT IS NOT: a reference book (no list of classes etc...) or a technical book for advanced programming; a book about Java or Carbon; an introduction to object-oriented programming; an introduction to C.

WHAT IT IS: an excellent introduction to programming in Objective C in the Cocoa environment of Max OS X, provided you know enough about
object-oriented programming (some basic understanding of C++ is preferable too).

WHAT YOU LEARN: Objective-C in Cocoa; using Apple Developer Tools; building an application in Mac OS X; how to make optimal use of Cocoa classes and API, knowing how they were conceived and meant to be used; a number of basic concepts and tips that really get you started.

THE PLUS that make this book so interesting: very good and clear writing; some amusing brief 'historical' insights; you really feel the author knows what he is talking about; the author gives personal views (clearly stated as advices, not rules); follow-up, errata, examples, comments, and more on his web site; still completely useable with OS X.2 (a couple or very minor changes that are listed on the web site anyway), so that's the good time to buy it (price is down, but content is still up to date).

Final comment: Objective C in Max OS X is very powerful and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: The most illuminating book on Cocoa
Review: I already understood object-oriented programming and was eager to learn about Cocoa. I read this book and the O'Reilly books. "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" was clearly the best. Judging from the Cocoa mailing lists, everyone seems to agree that this is the best place to start with Cocoa programming.

I was worried that it might not be ready for Mac OS 10.2. A few of the screenshot are clearly dated, but overall the book is completely 10.2-compatible. Also, there was extra information at the Big Nerd Ranch website to ensure that I had no problems using the book with Mac OS 10.2.

I like the clear, readable style, and I thought the material covered was truly useful. I actually emailed the author, and I found him quite pleasant and helpful. I hope he writes an advanced book.

Rating:
Summary: A must-have book
Review: If you're serious about programming on Mac OS X and have at least some experience under your belt already, then you really owe it to yourself to get two books:
(*)"Building Cocoa Applications: A Step by Step Guide."
(*)"Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X"

I started tinkering with Mac OS X a few years ago by reading a hodge-podge of incomplete Apple docs, sites like Stepwise, and archives of Omni-Group lists. These sources are great for reference, but it can be difficult to get answers you need unless you already have enough experience to know what questions to ask. Tough luck, newbie. O'Reilly's "Learning Cocoa" felt like an extension of Apple's docs - minimal on concepts and not entirely clear on some of the objectives of the examples. It's difficult to get an bigger-picture view of some of the capabilities offered by Cocoa and how you _could_ be doing development without a good explanation of concepts, clearly written example exercises that follow a sequence of topics, and additional information on how to make the best use of the Apple-provided developer tools.

The authors of both books take great pains to explain concepts to you in basic terms and then reinforce them with very well designed examples that really make you think. They then approach component problems from varying angles in order to help you understand the different options you have for tackling them. The chapter summaries and additional follow-up exercises were a very nice touch. Best of all is the idea that these books are not teaching you how to use particular classes in a restricted situation - they're teaching you how to understand _solutions_ in terms of Cocoa and then equip you with the skills required to plan your entire development approach and execute your project. The pointers on where to find additional documentation and some very, very cool tricks on how to use the development environment really made these books worthwhile.

I now feel more comfortable with Cocoa and more confident in my abilities to program on Mac OS X. Thanks, guys. :)

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: ransom22's review pretty much says it all. I've since supplemented this book with some of the O'Reilly books, and I'm awaiting delivery of Scott Anguish's "Cocoa Programming", but this is an excellent book with which to start the journey into Cocoa.

Rating:
Summary: Fine training for intermediate or advanced programmers
Review: This book really is one of the best technical training books I've seen. The development is logical and clear. The detail level is good for anyone with a bit of basic C/Objective-C/C++/Java experience.

At the same time, while by no means a complete reference manual (those are on-line anyway, bundled with the developer tools), the book is very usable for the more-experienced developer. I've been programming professionally in C/C++/Java for 15 years or so, and found myself leaping ahead to advanced chapters (for example, to add a "sheet" to my growing app). This worked very well, and it's unusual for one book to work both for novice and expert, both sequentially and by random access.

The style is personal and personable. Possibly just a shade too much so: the principal flaw of the book is that Mr. Hillegass is still a bit caught up in some "object oriented" turf wars of a decade or so ago. If you want to learn to do object-oriented programming, or even what it is, this is quite the wrong place to go. And the worst of that problem is that the presentation seems to claim to be "OO" without either mentioning or demonstrating the modularity and suitability of design that are the actual roots of "OO".

Rating:
Summary: Not Perfect, But Highly Recommended
Review: This was the book I had been waiting for, or at least ONE OF the books I had been waiting for, to really get started with Cocoa programming. The O'Reilly book, as has been mentioned plenty of times here, leaves a lot to be desired, and while it was better than nothing, a wall still remained between me and Cocoa after finishing it.

After reading Cocoa Programming for OS X, I feel I can say I "get" Cocoa finally. That's not to say I'm an expert, but that I can complete a simple program now, on my own, using the Cocoa frameworks and concepts. As Aaron says in the book, learing the Cocoa APIs will take much longer. I come from a Java background, with only marginal C and C++ experience. Although Aaron does not speak much about the objective-c language itself, that's ok. Apple's PDF is more than adequate to get that background.

There are some things that get glossed over that I wish had been more fully explained, and some things left out altogether that I would have liked to see, such as:

-- Spawning and managing multiple threads, thread safety issues

-- exception handling, debugging and assertions

-- Cocoa "primitive" objects (NSPoint, NSRect, NSRange, etc.), why they apparently don't need to be retained or released, and why they are "NS" objects but don't really behave like them.

-- Calling Toolbox routines or those from APIs that have not yet been "Cocoa-ized" (and integrating the Old Way into the Cocoa Way), with examples. Cocoa is nice but once you get away from building a text editor, you will need to dig into this ugly and unfriendly world at some point (unfortunately). For instance, how do I access the Airport card, how do I open and use a network socket, how can I read a DV-encoded stream from a FireWirePort and save it to disk as a QuickTime movie, how do I access a database, how do I use an OpenGL view?

-- How to customize Cocoa UI elements. Like if I wanted an NSSlider with TWO sliders, a minimum and a maximum. There is an example of subclassing an NSView in the book, but that's just a drawing panel.

To be fair, I'm not really criticizing Aaron for these things. The book has plenty of useful stuff, and I'm sure Aaron wants to write and sell more books, so some advanced Cocoa books that address some of these things as well as others will be welcome...I hope someone is writing them right now. I also hope someone is writing a comprehensive Cocoa API reference, as Apple's is somewhat lacking (Have you seen the phrase "Description Forthcoming" more times than you care to remember? I thought so.)

The bottom line is that this is a great book that is a must-have for anyone interested in Cocoa programming. I'd probably rate it four or four-and-a-half stars, but I'm giving it five for being there when I needed it, and being the first really useful book on the subject. The best thing I can say about it is that I can now do things there is simply no way I could have before.

Rating:
Summary: I Love This Book
Review: When I first learned C (ten years ago) I learned from a book (which no longer published). In a year's time that book was dog-eared and ragged I referenced it so much. While I just received Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (2nd Edition) last week, I think my copy will suffer a similar fate.

This book is well-written, clean and lean. The approach to the subject is right on subject without a lot of fluff. If you want to learn Cocoa, this is the book.