Beginning Mac OS X Programming [Paperback]

Michael Trent (Author), Drew McCormack (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764573993 | ISBN-13: 978-0764573996 | Publication Date: July 22, 2005 | Edition: 1

Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Every Mac OS X system comes with all the essentials required for programming: free development tools, resources, and utilities. However, finding the place to begin may be challenging, especially if you have no prior development knowledge. This comprehensive guide offers you an ideal starting point to writing programs on Mac OS X, with coverage of the latest release - 1.4 "Tiger."

With its hands-on approach, the book examines a particular element and then presents step-by-step instructions that walk you through how to use that element when programming. You'll quickly learn how to efficiently start writing programs on Mac OS X using languages such as C, Objective-C(r), and AppleScript(r), technologies such as Carbon(r) and Cocoa(r), and other Unix tools. In addition, you'll discover techniques for incorporating the languages in order to create seamless applications. All the while, you can follow along on your own system so that you'll be prepared to apply your new Mac OS X skills to real-world projects.

What you will learn from this book

• The major role the new Xcode plays in streamlining Mac OS X development
• The process for designing a graphical user interface on Mac OS X that conforms to Apple's guidelines
• How to write programs in the C and Objective-C programming languages
• The various scripting languages available on the Mac OS X system and what tasks each one is best suited to perform
• How to write shell scripts that interact with pre-installed command-line tools

Who this book is for

This book is for novice programmers who want to get started writing programs that run on Mac OS X. Experienced programmers who are new to the Mac will also find this book to be a useful overview of the Mac development environment.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Every Mac OS X system comes with all the essentials required for programming: free development tools, resources, and utilities. However, finding the place to begin may be challenging, especially if you have no prior development knowledge. This comprehensive guide offers you an ideal starting point to writing programs on Mac OS X, with coverage of the latest release — 1.4 "Tiger."

With its hands-on approach, the book examines a particular element and then presents step-by-step instructions that walk you through how to use that element when programming. You'll quickly learn how to efficiently start writing programs on Mac OS X using languages such as C, Objective-C®, and AppleScript®, technologies such as Carbon® and Cocoa®, and other Unix tools. In addition, you'll discover techniques for incorporating the languages in order to create seamless applications. All the while, you can follow along on your own system so that you'll be prepared to apply your new Mac OS X skills to real-world projects.

What you will learn from this book

• The major role the new Xcode plays in streamlining Mac OS X development
• The process for designing a graphical user interface on Mac OS X that conforms to Apple's guidelines
• How to write programs in the C and Objective-C programming languages
• The various scripting languages available on the Mac OS X system and what tasks each one is best suited to perform
• How to write shell scripts that interact with pre-installed command-line tools

Who this book is for

This book is for novice programmers who want to get started writing programs that run on Mac OS X. Experienced programmers who are new to the Mac will also find this book to be a useful overview of the Mac development environment.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

About the Author

Michael Trent has been programming in Objective-C since1997 and programming Macs since well before that. He is a regular contributor to Steven Frank’s www.cocoadev.com website, technical reviewer for numerous books and magazine articles, and occasional dabbler in Mac OS X open source projects. Currently, he is using Objective-C and Apple Computer’s Cocoa frameworks to build professional and consumer applications for Mac OS X. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Beloit College of Beloit, Wisconsin. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.

Drew McCormack has a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and works as a computational scientist in the Theoretical Chemistry group at the Free University in Amsterdam. He is involved in developing the Quantum Chemistry software ADF (www.scm.com), which is run the world over on computers ranging from desktop Macs to massive supercomputers. He programs regularly in Python, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, and Bash, and in his spare time develops the Cocoa financial software Trade Strategist (www.trade-strategist.com). Drew maintains the Maniacal Extent website—a reference to the chaotic dimension, time—which details his various interests and activities (www.maniacalextent.com).

Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (July 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764573993
• ISBN-13: 978-0764573996
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,006,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Getting the Novice Started, July 23, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning Mac OS X Programming (Paperback)

If you're an Apple guy or gal, you probably know that Apple believes in supplying an awful lot of ancillary programs with their basic system. The fact that you're looking at this book at all is that you probably have some special job that needs programming and it's up to you to do it. If you have not programmed on an Apple before, or if OS X is new to you, then this is the book you need.

This book is aimed at the novice/beginner programmer who doesn't know how to get into the programming environment using OS X, doesn't know what tools are available, and needs a bit of a guiding hand to get started. If you know any programming language it will be a help. If you know C it will be even more help. If you don't know either of these, this book will at least get you started up to the point where more specific documentation will take over.

This book uses a hands-on approach where you type something in and your computers screen should look like the illustration in the book. That is, it's not so much of a reference book as it is a tutorial.

The illustrations in this book were made using OS X 10.4 the Tiger release. Other verions of the software could be used, but the illustrations might vary somewhat.

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well thought out approach, September 14, 2005

By 

A. Oliver "Code monkey" (HELL(LA)) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beginning Mac OS X Programming (Paperback)

About 90% of my programming knowledge comes from books. And this is the first book I have read that actually looks at troubleshooting your code. Most books have a little two page summary of troubleshooting, but this had examples of what to look for. Excellent for the novice and still handy for the somewhat experienced. The approach of teaching the tools and the code at the same time was extremely refreshing, as most books seem to want to teach either one or the other and expecting you to know something. The Objective-C section of the book is not complete, but it has enough to get you productive relatively quickly. The one downside, this book is probably not a keeper, meaning that you spend the money and in less than a year, you will not really need it as a reference any longer.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is a Great Disappointment, November 14, 2007

By 

Ronald W. Knights "Ron_Knights" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beginning Mac OS X Programming (Paperback)

I am a total programming newbie. I'm also fairly new to the Apple world, having bought my first Macintosh in April. I've really been excited about Macs, OSX, and all the stuff they offer.

I mainly work in graphics programs such as Poser & DAZ|Studio. Over the years, I've created countless tutorials to help Graphics Newbies. I'm known for extensive use of screenshots, and good writing skills.

I've been disappointed because there are no Macintosh versions of some very important Poser-related utilities. I thought it would be nice to learn programming, and make my own utilities.

I browsed through the Amazon book collection, and this book seemed promising. Unfortunately I was wrong. Unfortunately, it appears no one proofread this book. I got as far as Chapter 3 before I gave up.

There are numerous problems with the Calculator project. The code you enter doesn't match the code listed later in the exercise. You're supposed to fix errors on code you never entered.

The book was a problem from the start. The XCode installation information was incorrect. This problem cost me a couple hours of downtime. I eventually found the solution myself...

In the book, we have some exercises that get you started, and then you're left hanging while the authors go on and on about related stuff. Should you save the project? Should you abandon it?

In my own opinion, this book doesn't have enough screenshots. I'm left wondering exactly what item to click, or what my code should look like, etc.

It's natural for a newbies to feel lost. It's the book author's responsibility to help the reader through this confusion and teach him something.

Unfortunately, the errors in the Calculator exercise are too great an obstacle to overcome.

The book will be placed on a shelf for now. Maybe one day I'll revisit it to see if the remaining chapters are better.