Comments on: A preliminary review of three Cocoa and Objective-C related books http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/ By Antonio Cangiano, Software Engineer & Technical Evangelist at IBM Sat, 19 Jul 2008 23:53:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Mark Dalrymple http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-1000 Mark Dalrymple Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:06:28 +0000 http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-1000 Thank you very much for the kind comments! I'm glad you've been able to get value out of AMOSXP. Since you've got programming chops already, you might want to snag the O'Reilly Objective-C pocket reference. It's mercifully short (compared to things like C++/Java in a nutshell), and covers all of the interesting parts of the language without extraneous fluff. Cheers, ++md Thank you very much for the kind comments! I’m glad you’ve been able to get value out of AMOSXP.

Since you’ve got programming chops already, you might want to snag the O’Reilly Objective-C pocket reference. It’s mercifully short (compared to things like C++/Java in a nutshell), and covers all of the interesting parts of the language without extraneous fluff.

Cheers,
++md

]]> By: Robert http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-989 Robert Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:52:18 +0000 http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-989 I would have to disagree with Paul. He mentions that Hillegass' book just shows a bunch of examples with no instructions. I thought the examples had very clear instructions and being able to apply what id learned to similar projects wasn't that big of a leap. But hey, we all learn differently. I would have to disagree with Paul. He mentions that Hillegass’ book just shows a bunch of examples with no instructions. I thought the examples had very clear instructions and being able to apply what id learned to similar projects wasn’t that big of a leap. But hey, we all learn differently.

]]> By: Tim http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-988 Tim Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:30:03 +0000 http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-988 If you're an experienced programmer, Kochan's book may too elementary at the beginning. Skim the parts that seem simple. If you are new to Cocoa, where this book will pay dividends, even to experienced programmers, is in part II where he writes about Foundation classes. A good grasp of the Foundation classes prior firing-up Interface Builder and XCode will make your life a lot easier. If you’re an experienced programmer, Kochan’s book may too elementary at the beginning. Skim the parts that seem simple. If you are new to Cocoa, where this book will pay dividends, even to experienced programmers, is in part II where he writes about Foundation classes. A good grasp of the Foundation classes prior firing-up Interface Builder and XCode will make your life a lot easier.

]]> By: Antonio Cangiano http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-985 Antonio Cangiano Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:47:53 +0000 http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-985 That's interesting Paul, thanks for your comment. Could you mention the books that you have found to be useful while learning Mac OS X development? <br/> Thanks, Antonio That’s interesting Paul, thanks for your comment. Could you mention the books that you have found to be useful while learning Mac OS X development?

Thanks,
Antonio

]]> By: Paul http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-984 Paul Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:32:59 +0000 http://antoniocangiano.com/2007/08/21/a-preliminary-review-of-three-cocoa-and-objective-c-related-books/#comment-984 There must be many different types of people using books. I bought the original Hillegass book and found it utterly useless and frustrating. It was an endless step by step recipe for creating an example program, with no explanation or motivation whatever for most of the steps, followed by "Now write another program using what you learned." I hadn't learned anything: the program logic was easy, but figuring out how to create it with (then) Project Builder was maddening. <br/> My basic test of a Cocoa book is a coherent explanation of why Interface Builder works the way it does: the Nextstep/Cocoa notion of "outlets" and "messages" and how IB works with them is the most confusingly counterintuitive concept I've encountered in 32 years of programming, and most books scarcely mention it. There must be many different types of people using books. I bought the original Hillegass book and found it utterly useless and frustrating. It was an endless step by step recipe for creating an example program, with no explanation or motivation whatever for most of the steps, followed by “Now write another program using what you learned.” I hadn’t learned anything: the program logic was easy, but figuring out how to create it with (then) Project Builder was maddening.

My basic test of a Cocoa book is a coherent explanation of why Interface Builder works the way it does: the Nextstep/Cocoa notion of “outlets” and “messages” and how IB works with them is the most confusingly counterintuitive concept I’ve encountered in 32 years of programming, and most books scarcely mention it.

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