Beginning iOS 5 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK [Paperback]

David Mark (Author), Jack Nutting (Author), Jeff LaMarche (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2011 | ISBN-10: 1430236051 | ISBN-13: 978-1430236054 | Edition: 1

The team that brought you the bestselling Beginning iPhone 4 Development is back again for Beginning iOS 5 Development, bringing this definitive guide up-to-date with Apple's latest and greatest iOS SDK, as well as with the latest version of Xcode. 

There's coverage of brand new technologies, with chapters on storyboards and iCloud, for example, as well as significant updates to existing chapters to bring them in line with all the changes that came with the iOS 5 SDK. You'll have everything you need to create your very own apps for the latest iOS devices, including the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and the latest iPod touch. Every single sample program in the book has been rebuilt from scratch using Xcode 4.2 and the latest iOS 5-specific project templates and designed to take advantage of the latest Xcode features.

Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, Beginning iOS 5 Development offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch programming. The book starts with the basics, walking through the process of downloading and installing Xcode and the iOS 5 SDK, and then guides you though the creation of your first simple application.

From there, you’ll learn how to integrate all the interface elements Apple touch users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You’ll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you’ll learn how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You’ll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using a variety of persistence techniques, including Core Data and SQLite. And there’s much more! You’ll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You’ll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages.

• The iOS 5 update to the bestselling and most recommended book for Cocoa touch developers
• Packed full of tricks, techniques, and enthusiasm for the new SDK from a developer perspective
• Written in an accessible, easy-to-follow style

What you’ll learn

• Everything you need to know to develop your own bestselling iPhone and iPad apps
• Best practices for optimizing your code and delivering great user experiences
• How to create “universal” apps for both the iPhone and iPad
• What is data persistence and why is it important
• Get started with building cool, crisp User Interfaces
• What and how to use Table Views
• How to do graphics with Quartz and OpenGL ES
• What geo app development features the new iOS 5 brings to the iPhone 4S
• How to get your app in iCloud
• And much much more...

Who this book is for

Everyone who wants to start developing for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad!

For the latest sourcecode, please head to www.iphonedevbook.com.

Table of Contents

1. Welcome to the Jungle
2. Appeasing the Tiki Gods
3. Handling Basic Interaction
4. More User Interface Fun
5. Autorotation and Autosizing
6. Multiview Applications
7. Tab Bars and Pickers
8. Introduction to Table Views
9. Navigation Controllers and Table Views
10. iPad Considerations
11. Application Settings and User Defaults
12. Basic Data Persistence
13. Get Your App in the iCloud
14. Grand Central Dispatch, Background Processing, and You
15. Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
16. Taps, Touches, and Gestures
17. Where Am I? Finding Your Way with Core Location
18. Whee! Gyro and Accelerometer!
19. iPhone Camera and Photo Library
20. Application Localization
21. Where to Next?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dave Mark is a longtime Mac developer and author who has written a number of books on Mac and iOS development, including Beginning iPhone 4 Development (Apress, 2010), More iPhone 3 Development (Apress, 2010), Learn C on the Mac (Apress, 2008), The Macintosh Programming Primer series (Addison-Wesley, 1992), and Ultimate Mac Programming (Wiley, 1995). Dave loves the water and spends as much time as possible on it, in it, or near it. He lives with his wife and three children in Virginia.

Jack Nutting has been using Cocoa since the olden days, long before it was even called Cocoa. He has used Cocoa and its predecessors to develop software for a wide range of industries and applications, including gaming, graphic design, online digital distribution, telecommunications, finance, publishing, and travel. When he is not working on Mac or iOS projects, he is developing web applications with Ruby on Rails. Nutting is a passionate proponent of Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks. At the drop of a hat, he will speak at length on the virtues of dynamic dispatch and run time class manipulations to anyone who will listen (and even to some who won’t). Nutting is the primary author of Learn Cocoa on the Mac (Apress, 2010) and Beginning iPad Development for iPhone Developers (Apress, 2010). He blogs from time to time at Nuthole.com.

Jeff LaMarche is a Mac and iOS developer with more than 20 years of programming experience. Jeff has written a number of iOS and Mac development books, including Beginning iPhone 3 Development (Apress, 2009), More iPhone 3 Development (Apress, 2010), and Learn Cocoa on the Mac (Apress, 2010). Jeff is a principal at MartianCraft, an iOS and Android development house. He has written about Cocoa and Objective-C for MacTech Magazine, as well as articles for Apple’s developer web site. Jeff also writes about iOS development for his widely-read blog at http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 752 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (December 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430236051
• ISBN-13: 978-1430236054
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Computers & Technology > Apple > Development & Programming > iOS & App Development

More About the Author

Jack Nutting has been using Cocoa since the olden days, long before it was even called Cocoa. He's used Cocoa and its predecessors to develop software for a wide range of industries and applications including gaming, graphic design, online digital distribution, telecommunications, finance, publishing, and travel. When he's not working on Mac or iPhone projects, he's developing web applications with Ruby on Rails. Jack is a passionate proponent of Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks; At the drop of a hat, he will speak at length on the virtues of dynamic dispatch and runtime class manipulations to anyone who'll listen (and even to some who won't). He blogs from time to time at www.nuthole.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars From zero to hero! January 2, 2012

By Mihai Bojin

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Phew, I just finished reading this book after putting about 68 hours of work into it, trying to understand every chapter and notion and writing the code myself so that it will better stick in my head.

I have to say, this has got to be one of the best technical books I've ever read, certainly great for a noob in Objective C and Cocoa like myself (but not an inexperienced programmer).

Things I believe contribute to the quality of this book:

- it is written with a nice pace in mind, taking the time to explain why certain choices were made and how iOS components work; every task is explained in detail, especially the Interface Builder tasks which can take some time to get used to and the authors never assume that you know how to do a certain thing - which is great for beginner developers; it also means that you can pick up chapters in a relatively random order and still be able to grasp how to work with XCode;

- goes through all major components of the Cocoa framework and provides relevant and well documented code;

- the book has a dedicated website which offers support in the form of a forum and from where you can download all the source code and resources used throughout the book;

- the authors included funny bits and bobs of text along the way, which help bring your morale up as you start wondering if this stuff is really for you;

- updated for iOS 5, includes information about ARC and a dedicated chapter for Storyboards;

- the authors teach you to think rather than learn how to do different tasks, which will definitely come in handy in the future, as XCode will most definitely change as it has in the past; a testament to this is that I've read the book partly from the 2nd version, while using the latest Xcode (4.2 at the moment) and was able to set up the projects correctly even though namings didn't quite match; after I switched to the third edition (this book) everything was as you would expect - up to date with XCode 4.2;

I have to say, this has got to be the best money I've ever invested in learning, as the price per quality ratio of this book goes through the roof!

I definitely recommend this book to any developer who wants to start building iOS applications and doesn't have any previous experience with Objective C and/or Cocoa. The book slowly builds on programming principles and Cocoa patterns, never assuming that you should know this or that. While knowing a bit of Objective C definitely helps, the authors explain each concept good enough to allow you to progress with the book without wondering what in the world have you just wrote.

I previously read Stephen Kochan's Programming in Objective C 2.0 which is a very good primer to the Objective C language but doesn't really teach you how to program iPhone or iPad apps and I'm also reading Aaron Hillegass' Objective C Programming, The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, which again seems like a language primer more than a book targeted to teaching you how to correctly think and develop iOS apps.

I'm pretty sure there are other good books out there, but I cannot stress enough the fact that if you're starting out this book will take you through all the necessary steps to understand how Cocoa works and how the apps are structured, what you can and cannot do with iOS and where to seek help when you'll need it.

I've really enjoyed this book, I'm pretty certain I now have a decent grasp on iOS development.
I'll be looking forward for any iOS books written by the same authors!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST book for starting IOS 5 development January 12, 2012

By Raz J.

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I can describe this book with a single word. Fantastic!

As some of the other reviewers mentioned, not having knowledge of Objective C can make following this book somewhat challenging. Not having any programming knowledge makes reading this book pointless. Having some knowledge of objective C is a must to fully reap the benefits of this book. As a background, my only programming knowledge before starting this upward (and somewhat steep) journey came from C which I learned over 10 years ago. I read two objective C primer books (and to save any beginners the trial and error of deciding, I would suggest Objective C programming: The big Nerds guide, followed by Programming in objective C 4th ed by Kochan). However reading the first one should be enough to get started with this fantastic book.

This book takes you up a steep hill using a "stairs" approach. Every step feels almost effortless as you move forward. The teaching style is very clear and does not assume prior knowledge of a subject, despite the fact that they explained that subject few chapters back. The exercises are very practical and they keep it simple and clear.

I highly recommend this book as a foundation laying book for beginning app development.

P.S. I purchased the Kindle edition of this book.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Satisfied w/Book January 3, 2012

By David A. Thompson

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have bought several Objective C & IOS development guides trying to get an understanding of development on the Mac & iPhone. None of the books would guide you properly and did not contain useful exercises and examples.

I bought the Kindle addition of this book and have not put it down. I am dragging My MacBook Pro everywhere and reading/programming in all of my spare time. The IOS 4 guides I purchased appeared to be more of an introduction to added functionality within the release.

The Objective C books end up having you run programs on the command line. The integration was missing.

This book is different. I have been a programmer for years but not a "C" programmer and not a Mac programmer. I work on Linux clusters and the like. a lot of scripting.

This book starts out telling you that it is not intended to teach you C. The exercises and chapters walk you through the entire IOS 5 X-code IDE and explain how to use the system in a progressional way. I am being taught how to use the IDE and develop useful code that is helping me understand how I need to setup and integrate all the pieces of an IOS application.

I highly recommend this book