Customer Reviews

Carbon Programming

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this book a while ago when I started programming for the Macintosh. I was looking for a good Carbon book but this book was not what I had hoped for.
The problem with the book is that it explains a lot about how to program on Mac OS 8/9.x (which still works in Carbon) but not really how to start with a real Carbon program. Most of the examples use the old event handler but not the new recommended Carbon event handler.
It also uses the old style *.rsrc resources and not the new much simpler nib-file approch to resources.
Now that I'm porting my Mac OS X program to Mac OS 9 I find it actually very helpful because it covers a lot of Mac OS 9 stuff.

Over all I would say if you want to write pure Carbon programs for Mac OS X buy another book. If you also want to learn how to program on Mac OS 9 then it is a good choice. It has example code to every chapter which is very helpful.

I got this book to learn Mac OS X programming and was very disappointed. There's way too much info on Mac OS 8 and 9, which is great for people who are migrating old applications; but if you're writing new applications like I am, it just gets in the way. Many screenshots are old and do not look like OS X windows. It talks about CDEF resources, which do not work in OS X; it does not talk about the updated way custom controls are done. Code samples use WaitNextEvent(), which is deprecated. There's nothing on quartz, but lots of info on quickdraw, which is deprecated. Nothing on HIView, OpenGL, etc. It appears that this was a great book in its day, but now, it'll probably just confuse you.

Ok, that's a lie. Many things have changed since OS 9. But they all build upon what's in OS 9. To do carbon, you need to know how OS 9's apis are structured. Most of the changes in Carbon are behind the scenes on OS 9's existing APIs (for example, HIView, etc). Besides, the important changes in Carbon are listed (namely, Carbon Events). The text focuses on being able to run on both OS X and OS 9. If you don't care, you'd probably want to use NIBs with Interface Builder instead of clunky, overpriced Resorcerer.

I wish there was a chapter on NIBs. That'd be nice. But you can piece together what's necessary from examples & documentation once you've read the book.

Simply put, there is no better book on the topic, and this one, while not perfect, is very good. Well written, easy to follow. Just the right number of details, good examples with great explaination.

The simple title "Carbon Programming", is a hint to the straight forward, no-nonsense style of this book.

This is THE book on Carbon Programming. I wish it came in hard cover, because it will see a lot of use on my workspace.

At over 1500 pages, after you've digested all the info contained therein, you can use it to bludgeon the next person who offers you a copy of "Window XPee".

Buy this book. Write the code.

I have this book and it's not worthy, well, maybe to have a hard copy of the API with some good comments, because that's what it is... maybe the code examples will help you some times, but I expected a lot more of a book about Carbon...