Rating: 
Summary: Misleading and basic, but gives a little taste of programmin
Review: This book is very simple and basic, using a "hold your hand" approach to programming on the Macintosh. The problem is you never really learn to program. The author seems more interested in having the reader play around with menus and windows than actually teaching how to create solid programs and build a programming foundation.This book has some glaring errors like failing to distinguish well enough between the Apple toolbox functions and actual library functions and keywords of the C programming language. If this is the reader's first ever book on programming, they will walk away with a strange hybrid of Macintosh specific code and actual C code. They may be in for a rude awakening if they try to apply any of this knowledge on another type of computer. The other problem with this book is the author often never describes fully what a specific function does or what a variable is for. Instead he takes the "just trust me" approach. This forces the reader to always stick with him and never allows them to explore their own ideas, which is a great way to learn how to program. Further enforcing this is the fact that the compiler that is included with the book is just shy of useless. It does not allow you to create your own programs, but only edit the programs the author provided. This format denies the reader the ability to create any of their own code, and thus removes a very important aspect of learning to program. This book is very light reading and easy to handle for complete novices. So it could be a fairly decent way to get a small taste of what programming is like. The problem is this taste is misleading, and if the reader were to pursue even further they may find themselves confused or having to unlearn a lot of stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: A rather mediocre book
Review: This book is written in an easy to understand, conversational tone. It presents the bare basics of mac programming as well as the bare basics of C. Though this book is okay, it does not cover much. Instead of purchasing this book, I recommend buying Foundations of Mac Programming, also by Dan Parks Sydow. Foundations is almost as easy to understand and it covers far more.
| 
