Customer Reviews

Beginning Mac OS X Programming

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book is quite helpful for the beginning Mac programmer.
However, lots of things have changed since it was published.
When you try to follow the "Try it out" examples, sometimes you get seriously stuck, because the "buttons" you are suggested to click no longer exist in the new versions of Xcode and Interface Builder.
Some discussed functions are now depreciated.
It's the time for the authors to think about a new edition.

I have been unfortunate enough to pick this book up as a starting point for Mac programming. Very heavy on sample code that's either not explained at all for a few chapters or just glossed over after you're made to type, compile and run it. Explanations are in the line-by-line format with no explanation of the larger context of what you're actually doing.

The book jumps around between new and legacy frameworks and environments as if a beginner needs to be confronted with more choices.

Oh and 200 of the 620 odd pages of content is about scripting, which again is split into UNIX scripting, Python/Ruby and AppleScripting...

I almost gave up on getting to grips with Mac programming until i thankfully threw this book in the bin and started again with something that's better structured.

I typically don't write negative reviews, but this book really needs one.

The title is misleading. I purports to be a book on OS-X programming, but an inordinate portion of it is just generic programming.

For instance, the section on C is almost 100% POSIX C programming; something you could do on practically all mainstream platforms.

Cross-platform is not why most people would need a book on OS-X programming. Typically a person who buys a book on OS-X programming is looking for interfaces, optimizations, etc. esoteric to the operating system with sample code in Objective C, or something comparable. I found little of that in here that was usable to me for writing professional quality programs.

To be fair, they do go over Objective C, which is essentially a Mac-only language; however, I just wish they had more on Mac operating system interfaces and system calls specific to that platform, instead of almost all generic Objective C programming.

Finally, I think they tried to be too broad in the number of topics they covered. In order to show OS-X operating system programming with all the languages they tried to include, they would have needed a volume 12 inches thick. The effect is that you only get a smattering on any one of the languages, and they don't do a thorough job on any of them. You would expect to be able to start programming something meaningful and useful in SOME language when you are through reading a book with this title. Unfortunately, that's not the case here.

This is pretty much a useless book, in my opinion. My apologies to the authors for having to write a review like this.

I presumed that the book would still be useful for my iMac with OS X 10.5, but I have found it very tough going. There are enough differences between what the book describes and shows that I spend more time trying to figure out the 10.5 version of their 10.4 instructions than actually learning how to program. That I am just beginning to learn how to program, my difficulty might reflect more about me than the book.

I also perhaps should have taken as a hint that if Wrox hasn't come out with a 10.5 version of this book, there might be a reason for it. The book seemed impressive enough that I though it worth a try. I regret buying the book since I doubt that I will really be able to use or benefit from it.

I will soon try 'Learn C on the Mac' by Dave Marks, published by Apress to see if that works better for me.
Lesson learned: don't buy computer books for versions other than what you have.

I've just started to read the book (1st &2nd chapters) and it seems to follow the directions from previous reviews that lead me to buy it: it seems indicated to someone who, like me, is new to the OSX environment and is willing to do some programming on it.

Been a great book for learning Mac programming so far. Very hands on with examples aplenty.

I am new to MacOSX development and this is just hands down a great book to get started with. it lays down a great foundation for getting started. If you have done development or hand not it is a great way to get the ball rolling. Can't wait for the next edition.