Customer Reviews

Head First iPhone and iPad Development: A Learner's Guide to Creating Objective-C Applications for the iPhone and iPad

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a partial review. I want to provide some feedback quickly in case there are others in my situation. I call this an operational review because I just want to become operational/proficient in iPad development - I'm not someone who can write pithy reviews.

First so that you understand the context of my comments, I am a retread. I've never programmed on any Apple computer before. I received an iPad for my birthday last year and I bought a MacBook Pro to write an App for the iPad. I can program in Visual Studio environment.

That being said I bought the "iPad for Dummies" book and gave up with that book half way through when this book arrived. I only received the Head First book last week and I've learned more in this book, and more quickly, than the Dummies book. Don't even consider the Dummies book unless you are more concerned with the philosophy of Apple development and not what I wanted to do - that is, write an iPad App.

I will also point out I purchased the "Programming in Objective-C" by Kochan at the same time I bought the Dummies book. If like me you never even looked at Objective C before this is a must have. It gives you the nuts and bolts of the language.

I intend to write more on each book as I progress. So far the score is Dummies book - 0, Head First - 5.

15 July 2011. Ok I am making progress with Head First. I still like it. I've found a few missing steps which caused me some angst. But that's not my focus and I figured it out. Again coming from Visual Studio, it really is a big jump. So I've been working in parallel with Kochan's book "Programming in Objective-C", 3rd edition. I'd really recommend this approach if your background is similar to mine. One really reinforces the other.

Head First iPhone and iPad Development (second edition) takes you, again, on a great journey across iPhone development related topics. What you get here is a gentle introduction into iOS programming.

Book covers most common issues you will definitely face during iPod development. It starts with introduction to XCode (iOS devoted IDE). What's worth mentioning here, it covers XCode version 4 (most recent one). Then it presents how to develop simple "hello world" like application. This way, you can fell what coding for iPhone/iPad is in practice. Apart from that, you will be taught how to use multiple views (very common use case for iPhone applications), how to access data (both via plists and Core Data), how to use tab bars, and some of the iOS frameworks. In general, this is very gentle introduction to iOS related development. And it's written like any other Head Firsts series book. It uses simple language, simple examples and good analogies. This way, you don't have to pretend that you are an expert with the topic before you start to read it.

If you are new to iOS and Mac world you will definitely notice that Objective-C is something totally different than Java/C++/C#. Here, Dan provides you with the very basics of the Objective-C. However, these basics are tightly bound to UI related development. You won't get detailed syntax explanation here. If you want to get it, you will have to look somewhere else anyway. This is not that big disadvantage after all. In fact, most of the iOS development related books lack good explanation of Objective-C.

I have read Head First iPhone Development (first edition) some time ago. In fact, this had been one of the books I have learned to program iPhone from. I think it was a good choice at that time. I'd recommend it to all the people who are at the very beginning of the journey. If you know something about iPhone development already. It might be that this book will cover topics you already know. In that case, deciding for iOS 4 Programming Cookbook or Concurrent Programming in Mac OS X and iOS might be a better idea for you.

The newest version of XCode makes this book (second edition, the latest one) frustrating to follow in some places and impossible to follow in others. I abandoned the book after realizing I could not complete chapters 7 and 8 with XCode 4.2. I would strongly recommend waiting for the next edition to come out.

Head First Iphone & iPad Development by Dan Pilone and Tracy Pilone is aimed at guiding programmers new to development for iOS though the SDK tools, the fundamentals of Objective-C, and the app development and submission processes.

This book is the fourth Head-First book I have read, and I am a fan of the series and of the communication style they use. They like to employ established cognitive science techniques that aid in understanding and retention, such as using an informal tone, humor, reiteration/rephrasing, active participation / exercises, and they facilitate visual-style learning.

While this particular book does not include a lot of introduction to computer science material, it does walk you through some interface design principles and introduces some of the Apple guidelines for iOS applications. Many of the other Head First books take time to explain some of the basics like how arrays work in a particular language, or the basics of objects in object orient programming, but this book mainly focuses on subjects unique to Objective-C programming for iPhone/iPad, with a some good examples of how to adapt an existing iPhone application to the iPad, or to support both the iPad / iPhone the from the get go and make a universal app.

While not current to iOS5, I am not aware of anything in this book that will not work with iOS5. The examples give a good starting point for people that want to learn Objective-C and include many commonly-used topics such as working with multiple views, the table view, and various UI elements. For storing your data they cover property lists and core data, both of which are pretty easy to get started with. Core data is powerful and makes saving and retrieving data from a MySQL database easy.

The book also covers integrating the camera into your apps, as well as map kit, and core location. It also briefly touches on animation and the accelerometer.

I like the way this book starts from simple examples that you can run right away. It assumes no knowledge of iOS or Xcode but does require a background in programming. The first chapter has you running your own app on Xcode's iPhone simulator. Very rewarding.

That having been said, the instructions and examples are based on an older version of Xcode than you get from Apple (currently 4.2). For example, on page 146, it says to choose a Navigation-based Application, but Xcode 4.2 does not offer that option. It appears that the option "Master-Detail Application" is the closest one, but that does not include a MainWindow.xib that they have you work with in the instructions. There are numerous similar "errata" comments on the book's web site but there have been no responses from the authors since August 2011.

So I'm running into constant road blocks trying to follow the instructions in the book. I don't recommend this book until it is updated for the latest version of Xcode.

Dan and Tracey provide an in-depth coverage of iPad and iPhone development using Objective-C and XCode 4. Their professional experience in these areas is captured within this book and I have a deeper understanding of iPad and iPhone development, Objective-C, and XCode. After going through the book and implementing the examples, I am able to develop my own application for both iPhone and iPad using XCode. I would recommend this to anyone that is wanting to get into developing apps for iPhone and/or iPad that has little to now experience with Objective-C and XCode.

Being an experienced software engineer myself it is always good to learn from other people different tricks to working with a new IDE. I felt this way when I first went down the path of creating apps and felt that the tips I learned in this book about working in XCode accelerated my learning curve greatly. Even though XCode was not a focus of the book without the tips I would still be stumbling around trying to figure things out.

The main focus of the book is on creating apps for iPhone and iPad which is done very well. They cover the importance of designing applications that follow Apple's iOS HIG (Human Interface Guide) in order to make sure your applications pass Apples standards and are available at the App store. They cover important topics like working with data using files and databases within your apps. In addition, they talk about how to work with the camera, accelerometer, MVC (Model View Controller pattern), managing multiple views, work with the different frame works within Objective-C, and many other important areas in App development. Not only do they a wide coverage of important topics, but the way that they explain the development and coding process for the example Apps helps you learn quickly. I also enjoyed how at the beginning of the book they explained everything in details and as you went along they would present questions on how you would solve a different problem with what you have learned. These challenges made me think more about what I was learning and helped me better understand what I had read by trying to apply it to a different problem. This alone sets this book apart from other books that just provide code segments.

Again, I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to get started developing Apps for iPhone and iPad. Being new to this area myself (but an experience developer), I can say that you will be excited about developing Apps after reading this book.

What a great method for teaching objective-c! I really like the use of illustrations, diagrams, and funky text to paint an image of what is being explained in text. It really captured my attention, and helped me comprehend the complex concepts a lot better than just the use of text. I think just being able to "see" what I was reading, really helped me to understand and retain more. I really believe if you self-study a lot, the visual aides are essential because you do not have an instructor to elaborate on the subject or to further explain a concept, so a lot of times you're searching other sources. The best part of the book in my opinion was the building of the sample applications and then deploying them to my phone. They didn't look as pretty as those in the app store, but given more time, they will. One thing I wish they covered a little more in this book was the whole developer set up on the apple developer portal (i.e. app ids, developer, provisioning and distribution certificates) the documentation is a little sparse, and needs more explanation. But I guess that would take an entire book just by itself. All in all, I feel the Head First series has a great teaching method that is highly effective and really works.

I spend my days developing software, so I wanted a "fun" introduction to iPhone development. I think the Head First book accomplished that. I learned a lot and generally had fun doing it. My problem with the book is that there are a fair number of bugs in the code examples, particularly towards the end of the book. When you're learning, it's frustrating to type in an example only to see it fail for an obscure error. That wouldn't be so bad if you could find additional help, but there again the Head First series falls a bit short. The associated online forums are difficult to search and full of spam. I won't name names, but there is another book series that sorts their forums by chapter number and are incredibly helpful if an example doesn't work as described.

Good:

This is a good starter book on iOS development.

Like all other Head First books it uses layman's terms and tries to make reading interesting.

Bad:

I think Head First needs a separate Objective C and C book.

It doesn't cover all Cocoa. Unfortunately since Apple development had been a niche area for decades until the advent of iOS, it's a little harder to learn especially since some portions of Cocoa don't always have an Objective-C interface. I would pay more money if the author covered more areas. .NET and Java are easy comparatively.

The book starts by saying you don't have to know much programming but it helps, but then it goes into deep, obscure computer-speak that only a seasoned programmer would know. I come from a web design background but I have PHP and Actionscripting experience and comfortable with OO programming. I don't claim to be a programmer by any means...which is why I bought a Head First book instead of book aimed at one. But this book will frustrate the hell out of you. The author will dwell on things that seem obvious but throw advanced terms at you with no explanation. And the magnet quizzes are sometimes impossible where you'd have to be a mind-reader on top of a programmer to know the answers. The whole book feels very rushed and as I said in the title it just meanders seemingly with no sense of organization. I expected more from a Head First book.