Description:
"The best, if not the only, book for the budding Mac programmer." Long before the shelves were littered with titles like Chihuahuas for Dummies, there was this certain charm to Dummies books. They took difficult subjects and made them palatable. Along the way, the books were entertaining. Never condescending. Oh, those were the days. Fortunately, Mac Programming for Dummies is one of those old-flavor books. Like a few other authors, Dan Parks Sydow "gets it" when it comes to writing a Dummies book. Macintosh programming is insane. I've tried it. I gave up. That was back in 1989 or so. Then one day I got an e-mail from a Mac user who enjoyed my C programming books and wanted something specific for the Mac. I picked up Mac Programming for Dummies, read it, and now recommend it to anyone wanting to program on the Mac. Sydow takes a complex, obnoxious task and boils it down into nice, happy, chewable chunks. I admit I was disappointed at first. The book is really rather skimpy when it comes to actual programming--but it's a great read and highly informative. Sydow uses his knowledge of the subject to carefully orient the reader to the important programming aspects of the Mac--as opposed to rushing off and doing a "Hello, World" program. No, that approach wouldn't work on a Mac, which I now know after reading this marvelous book. The book comes with a CD-ROM (which is the reason for the hefty cover price), and on it you'll find a miniversion of the popular Code Warrior programming package. On the downside, there aren't enough true programming examples or hard information, so you will need additional references if you plan on continuing a Macintosh programming career. But for a start, this book is awesome. --Dan Gookin
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