Cocoa Programming for Dummies

Cocoa Programming for Dummies Review

I've been trying to teach myself Cocoa for over a year now. OS X is an absolutely stunning piece of software, and I love the idea that Apple includes in the box a full set of developer tools I can use to create my own little OS X masterpiece.

The problem, however, is the learning curve. For a first-time programmer, Cocoa is one tough nut to crack. There are lots of third-party books out there now. Unfortunately, they are all geared toward experienced programmers. Every book assumes fairly extensive C or OOP programming experience, and none cover basic programming or Objective-C in sufficient detail for the complete programming newbie.

While this book isn't really an exception to the rule, the approach is definitely more newbie-friendly. I purchased the book on a Thursday, and finished it on Sunday evening with a much greater appreciation and understanding of Cocoa technology.

What made the difference? For one, by the time this came out, I already had some exposure to the underlying technologies: I trudged through Apple's Objective-C documentation (hard-going for non-programmers, but after a couple of read-throughs, the material starts to gel). I did the Currency Converter tutorial, which got me familiar with Project Builder and Interface Builder, the two most important tools in Cocoa development. I read various other portions of Apple's on-line documentation, and looked at some tutorials available on the web. As noted, I'd also taken a crack at some of the other books available on the subject, throwing in the towel on all of them before hitting page 100 or so. None of this taught me how to program in Cocoa, but it gave me enough background to tackle this book and understand just about every topic covered.

If, and probably only if, you've at least looked at Cocoa and Objective-C before (or have significant experience in C, Java, Smalltalk, or other OOP), you will be able to not only work through, but understand, the exercises in this book.

And the exercises are very practical and clearly explained. Rather than build a book-length, professional quality application, the author builds small, toy applications to demonstrate Cocoa patterns that you can actually use to build your own software. For example, the chapters on text handing, window management, and file and folder management, are clear and concise, allowing the reader to work through them quickly and without complication. This fast and dirty approach, at least for me, had the added benefit of allowing me to get through the book in less than a week, take a step back, and appreciate how all I learned could be used to start building my own, more complex project.

I'd like to thank Mr. Tejkowsi for being first to market with a Cocoa beginner's book that actually works for beginners. His effort gave me a taste of the power of Cocoa, and the confidence to return to other, more advanced texts that I'd walked away from before. Thanks to him, I'm not ready to give up on Cocoa just yet!

Cocoa Programming for Dummies Features

• ISBN13: 9780764526138
• Condition: USED - VERY GOOD
• Notes:

Rating :

Price : $34.99

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Overviews

Mac OS X comes with an array of tools that make Macintosh programming easier and more accessible than ever before – and Cocoa is the hottest of these. Object oriented, featuring powerful frameworks and cool visual interface design capabilities, Cocoa provides you with programming skills you only could dream of a few years ago. With it, you can quickly create sophisticated applications for Mac OS X, complete with beautiful Aqua interfaces and advanced functionality. But getting started with Cocoa can be tricky, and you’re going to need all the expert, hands-on advice and guidance you can get. That’s where this book comes in.

Cocoa Programming For Dummies is your complete guide to mastering that powerful Mac development tool. Full of fast and easy projects for designing, developing, and deploying rich new applications with Cocoa, it gets you up and running, in no time, with what you need to:

• Master the Cocoa API
• Get the most out of AppKit Framework and Found ation
• Get a handle on Objective-C programming
• Use advanced graphics features
• Program file management features
• Develop Web-friendly applications
• Create hot multimedia effects
• Build a movie player

Cocoa Programming For Dummies lets you explore Cocoa programming by doing it. Each chapter guides you through the process of creating at least one simple application illustrating the features covered in it. Erick Tejkowski walks you through:

• Six simple steps to creating Cocoa applications
• Project Builder, Interface Builder, FileMerge, IconComposer, PackageMaker and other utilities
• Programming in Objective-C
• Manipulating, editing and saving text, and changing text styles
• Using graphics, managing files, and printing with Cocoa
• Interacting with the Web and sending e-mail from a Cocoa application
• Loading and playing sound files and building an audio player
• Watching movies with Cocoa
• Building document-based applications using AppleScript

The easy way to start cooking up hot new Macintosh applications with Cocoa, Cocoa Programming For Dummies puts you in control of all of Mac OS X’s awesome object-oriented programming capabilities.

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Customer Review

Not very good - John Sandercock -
This is not a very good book for learning Objective C and Cocoa. The author programmes in Basic, and it shows. Get the much better introduction called Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X from Aaron Hillegass.

Needs updated and edited - Bruce Carter - South Bend, IN USA
The number of errors in the code and processes in the book make it very frustrating for beginners. I think with a good rewrite and update for Xcode, and more careful editing (some errors were obviously a result of the production process, missing lines of code that were included in the online extras files, missing steps in development instructions, and such) this would be a useful beginner's book.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Apr 19, 2010 05:14:04

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