Customer Reviews

Cocoa® Programming for Mac® OS X (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the pleasure to attend the April 2004 Cocoa programming class at the Big Nerd Ranch. We used a looseleaf version of the final proofs of the 2nd edition of "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X". Short summary: Excellent.

I have the first edition of the book, so let me summarize some changes:

The book uses Xcode. Cocoa bindings are covered, including key value coding and key value observing. The document architecture is introduced early, and this is coupled to an early discussion of implementing undo. Topics are developed logically and incrementally. The discussion on Java has been dropped, while class notes on OpenGL have been moved into the book.

An early example has been simplified to flatten out the learning curve in the first part of the book. Code examples that are developed in stages now show the new lines of code in BOLD, a vast improvement when you're typing it in.

This book has been refined systematically based on feedback from real students at the BNR classes. This attention to detail really shows.

I recommend the book very highly. My only suggestion would be to use Apples "Objective C Programming Lanaguage" or "Programming in Objective C" (Steve Kochan) as an adjunct to this book if you need a slower introduciton to Objective C.

This book is simply excellent. It really goes into what cocoa is all about one step at a time. Starting with a very simple app and slowly getting into more complex topics like undo, drag and drop, etc...

It is full of screenshot, so you can easily implement the examples on your own. Everything is neatly detailed, with a lot of 'click here', 'drag this object from here to there' to make sure you are not lost using interface builder.

Of course, don't think that you can go through this book without knowing obj-c. This is NOT an obj-c intro (some people were complaining about this in other reviews !!) Come on... If you want to learn obj-c, simply get 'Programming in Objective-C' by Stephen G. Kochan...

The only problem with this book is that the technology is moving really fast. Apple is really taking care of its developers and introducing new concepts/ideas all the time... So, it makes it hard for any book to really stay up to date...

Two major new technologies not (well) covered in this book are:

1/ Bindings (not well covered)
This second edition has been updated to cover some of the new 10.3 topics/tools, but I don't believe Aaron spend nearly enough time on 'cocoa bindings'. They completely change the way you approach an application and litteraly save you hours by taking care of all the 'glue code'.

CocoaDevCentral has some amazing articles which really show you how powerful bindings can be. Check out this one for instance and see for yourself:
http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000080.php

2/ Core Data (too new to be covered)
Core Data, a new Tiger technology is (of course) not covered. Another amazing technology which will help you get rid of a lot of glue code. Again, check these 2 articles on CocoaDevCentral:
http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000086.php
http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000085.php
Apple keeps amazing me ;-)

This book falls somewhere inbetween Beginner and Intermediate. It's a beginners book in that it assumes no background in Cocoa or Objective-C. It's kind of intermediate in that having at least programming experience in some language will be of great help.

The book does not start with a lot of philosophy, instead it goes through a step-by-step process to wrtie the first application. This is done with some good explanations and a lot of screen shots.

The author is a teacher of Cocoa, and he wrote this book to use in his classes. After writing the firt edition he used it for a couple of years, enough to understand where the problems might lie. Now he's done a second edition based on what he learned in teaching the first book, and the changes that Apple has made in the software.

This book is tutorial, not a reference book. It leads you through the process step by step. Then there is a fairly extensive index so that you can look up points later. Highly Recommended.

Aaaron Hillegass' book, Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X (second edition) is THE introductory Cocoa book. Last year I returned to the Macintosh family with the purchase of an iBook. FINALLY, a mainstream OS with a bullet-proof, proven foundation AND with an incredible graphics engine. 'Nuff said! Cha-Ching on the visa card!

My background includes several years with a large IT consulting firm and some work as a teaching assisitant while in graduate school.

From reading online discussion groups and reviews here at Amazon, I got the impression that most people attempting to learn Cocoa start with this book, so that's where I started. Having completed the book, I am glad that I followed the advice of others in this regard. Here are my comments, kudos and otherwise:

- The book assumes a knowledge of C or C++. Cocoa is written in and designed to be used with Objective-C. Aaron introduces Objective-C concepts and terminology as needed throughout the book, but he assumes that you know C. For instance, he doesn't explain that NSPoint and NSRect are NOT Cocoa classes. He tells the reader that they are structs but does not explain the concept of a struct since experienced C programmers do not need that information. I do agree with the other reviewer that it can be confusing as to what is a struct and what is a Cocoa class if one only looks at the name of the entity, but that fault lies with the framework designers who chose the naming convention, not Aaron. The point is that if you don't know C, LEARN C BEFORE BEGINNING THIS BOOK. (Having taught C++ before, I had no trouble picking up Objective-C without referencing any other material.)

+ Aaron teaches by example. He presents a topic in high level terms and then instructs the reader to follow step-by-step instructions to implement the concept. After writing the code and seeing it in action, he explains how it works and then goes into even greater deal at the end of each chapter with a section titled "For the more curious."

+ Aaron's writing style is informal and casual. If you didn't know better, you'd think your best friend was by your side instructing you in simple, easy-to-understand terms. In fact, he makes Cocoa seem much more simple than it is.

+ Most chapters are short and can be completed in one sitting in 1-2 hours at most. However, there are a couple of exceptionally long chapters-- I think too long. As much as I tried not to do so, I had to break longer chapters into 2-3 sittings. I believe that I, like most people, learn better when given small chunks of knowledge and time to digest it before moving forward.

+ Aaron covers some topics in the book I wouldn't expect to see in an introductory book: 1- creating InterfaceBuilder pallets and 2- creating frameworks.

- I wish there was more information on views, windows, array controllers, bindings, and window controllers. Some views, for example, have flipped origins and some do not. [English: The origin coordinate (x=0,y=0) of some views begins at the lower left corner while other views set the origin to the upper left corner.]

+ BUY THIS BOOK if you want to learn to create MacOS X software!

I just got my first Mac Mini (been a PC programmer for years and years).

I installed XCode (free!)

And got this book...

It is perfect. It gives you the facts and walks you through great examples. Very concise and to the point without any mac is better than pc/micrososft etc.

Simply a great book. Do not hesitate in picking this one up.

This is a well written overview of start-to-finish application development in Cocoa. It's primarily focused on use of the interface builder and how that maps to the back-end Objective-C objects. The text is light and easy to read, and screenshots are used effectively. There are also some diagrams to demonstrate the relationships between objects at runtime.

I appreciated the walkthrough, but I would have preferred a reference section that provided an overview of the Cocoa APIs. That would make it valuable after you have gone through the walkthrough.

Just because one is an expert at a given subject does not mean they make the best person to teach it. Aaron Hillegass is in a group of those few rare individuals who knows the subject and can help the reader to better understand it. His book is a well written and thought out tutorial that has been tested and refined by actual teaching conditions. If you haven't had the pleasure of attending Big Nerd Ranch then this is the next best thing. Don't think about it...just buy the book!

I'm about halfway through this book and I have to say it's one of the best programming books I've seen. It's well written and pretty easy to follow. So if you are new to programming for the Mac, this is definitely one to check out. It helps if you have a basic understanding of Objective-C - if you know the Objective-C syntax the examples in the book are a lot easier to comprehend. Plus the projects are interesting enough to keep your attention.

This is a good introduction to learning the Cocoa framework for Mac OS X. It can certainly be confusing at parts, and it is beyond frustrating that the author refuses to publish solutions to the Challenge problems because he believes the reader should figure it out his/herself. (I just want something to check my solutions against!)

Regardless of annoyances, though, I do find myself learning Cocoa and easily remembering how to build good Mac apps very quickly using Xcode and Interface Builder. It would help to know Objective-C before starting, as I've had some hangups that I was only able to solve with the help of "Programming in Objective-C" by Stephen Kochan. All in all, though, a good book.

Cocoa can seem like a brave new world to those accustomed to pure programming, since Cocoa is a combination of programming in Objective-C and stringing together and customizing prefabricated visual components. So it was comforting to read this in chapter one: "Before going any further, assure yourself that you are up to the challenge and that some things are just hard." You should already know Objective-C before you read this book. If you don't, "Programming In Objective-C" by Kochan is a good book on the subject. Just be prepared for the difficulty level going through the book to be more like hills and valleys than one long ascension. This is not to say that the book is not a good one, it's just that since Cocoa is actually an umbrella for a number of technologies that it is really hard to start from the beginning since there really isn't one. There are plenty of examples though, and the author makes the subject as clear as is humanly possible.