Customer Reviews

Core Mac OS X and UNIX Programming

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a bit on the pricey side, but it delivers the goods more than many other expensive book in my bookshelf. I own hundreds of programming books (as well as have written several of them). Of them all there is only a handful that I consider trully excellent. This is one of them.

This book covers every possible topic (both OS X specific and UNIX) that you could possibly think of, but the coverage is not lightweight. It is heavy duty information delivered at its best. Fine code examples, and fine discussion, well worth the price.

If Amazon had a ten star rating, this book would get it. - GET IT!

If you're a programmer and you want to learn more about Mac OS X and its Unix underpinnings, you must have this book. The information in here is not available anywhere else, including in Apple's documentation. The authors have done a remarkable job in ferreting out cool stuff, such as how the memory model works, programming with sockets, using GDB, multithreading, and a zillion more nifty topics. This is a remarkable book.

This is probably the best book I own on Mac programming. It goes into the lower level, hard-core topics that other books are afraid to touch. As I read it straight through, cover to cover, I see how I've been doing things wrong, and I constantly refer back to concepts I just read when I write new code. It makes me the envy of all my peers.

Go to this website for details:

http://www.bignerdranch.com/products/core.shtml

I bought some months ago "Cocoa programming for Mac OS X" written by the same author A. Hillegass. It was the key book for me to understand the Cocoa. Now I write my own applications and I am sure the next book from The Big Nerd Ranch will help me to discover next areas of the Mac OS X Programming.

However it is a pity that Amazon.com tells us it is a bargain (nearly 30% off the catalog price $97.95). On the Big Nerd Ranch there is a link to a company which sells this book for $65.

From the glossy cover to the final climax, this is a thrilling ride through some of the deeper delights of Unix for the Mac. Interface. Lock files. Repeatedly input and output until you're totally spent. Heaven.