Customer Reviews

Learn C on the Mac (Learn Series)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a great book for learning C and for software development on the Mac. The pace is very manageable for a person new to programming, the examples are clear, the downloaded code samples compile and run without error.

This books is different than almost any other that I have read in that it provides additional reference material and sources to let the reader explore more about C, programming, XCode, Mac development and follow one's own curiosity.

All in all, this is the best beginning programming book that I have ever read. I felt empowered and capable after reading it instead of bewildered and wondering how all of the pieces fit together, which has been the case with some other C books.

My only ding on the book (and the reason that I've only given it 4 stars) is that there are not a lot of coding exercises. This may not be entirely necessary if you work through the examples in the book (and there are very many good ones) but it would be an improvement to have some more meaty exercises as I think that this is a method to have readers internalize what they have learned.

Dave Mark has done an excellent job of presenting the material in this book! Most introductions to C programming are either dry and boring or ridiculously silly (in a failed attempt to be fun). Dave managed to find a balance, teaching the concepts in a tone that can best be described as conversational. The easier sections of the book really do feel like fun, while still maintaining the integrity demanded by the subject; the more difficult sections are rather comforting and instill the confidence that the reader will be able to master the hard concepts.

Another reason why the presentation is so successful is that Dave does not overwhelm the reader with too much information. He tells you only what you need to know in order to get your programs to work, but also provides sources to find the information you don't need but may want.

Of course, being written specifically for Mac computers is a major selling point, and rightfully so! In addition to learning the C programming language, the reader will become familiar with the Xcode development environment, the arena where Mac and iPhone/iPod development takes place.

The place where Learn C on the Mac stands out above the rest (in my opinion) is that it leaves the reader confident that he/she not only knows what the concepts are, but also understands how to use them. There are many books and websites out there that are great at teaching the theory, but lack and explanation of the practice. What good is it to know what a pointer is if you don't know how it would fit into a program?

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to begin programming on the Mac!

I had read that using "Learn Objective-C on the Mac" required some experience with C, so I read this first. I had used C ever so briefly in an intro to programming class in engineering school back in the mid 90's.

If you have any programming experience, it may be just a tad too basic. I've been programming heavily in recent years in VB.Net, C#, Matlab, and Fortran. For me, learn C provided the syntax variations I needed, but added nothing new to my understanding of programming concepts. I would've liked more in depth programming examples that made use of lesser known concepts, but I can't complain too much as I understood it was a beginner book going in. I actually breezed through all 300+ pages in 5 days.

"Learn C on the Mac" would be an excellent book for any beginning programmer. It is clear, concise, and to the point. It also may be good for any Windows developer moving to Mac as it does provide some basic information about XCode.

I purchased this book with the intentions of starting to develop on the Mac, and in the very near future move to the iPhone.
Having some Python & C++ background, I found the book to have very little use, for any other than learning the C syntax. The author starts out good, but after chapter 3 or 4 it goes downhill. Some chapters just don't feel complete. The chapter on functions (very, VERY important) wasn't covered too well; instead he gives us a few examples and goes off topic. Another chapter that I wish was better written was chapter 7 on Pointers and Parameters, again, barely covered. I wish there was more on how to access the different functions from the libraries, the math library, string library, file management, etc.
Perhaps I was not patient enough to follow everything through to the T. My suggestion is to look up and download/print C/Obj-C PDF's from Apple's website and use them along this book. There is plenty of online information available that will show what's in this book, and I'm sure it's not nearly as hard to follow and comprehend.

As someone who has never programmed on the Mac or in C, I found this book to be a godsend. The author starts with the preliminary steps for getting started with Xcode on the Mac, and then takes you across to the language itself. I liked the engaging and simple style in which it is written. To a newcomer to C, even a simple "hello World" program in C appears terrifying as it is always surrounded by a host of arcane statements that make no sense. The author tackles this situation in a pedagogically sound manner. The author gets the reader to focus on the central concepts that matter in the program code rather than all the distracting details. The book builds up gradually and gives you a solid platform for going on to Objective C. Highly recommended. Thanks form a grateful programmer !

Even though this book is C "on the mac" it's a great intro to the C language regardless of the platform. You can use this book to learn C on windows or Linux as well.
The book is very clear and forward in the concepts and teaches them in a easy to understand way. This was the best intro to C that I've ever read. I highly recommend it.

Target Audience: The book identifies the target audience as beginners. Specifically mentioning 5th graders, soccer moms, hobbyists, and others who may have no previous experience with programming (or possibly even computers). This fits in with the book's sub-title "A Complete Course in C Programming for the Beginner".

The author faithfully sticks to this intended audience, so you find things such as "Notes" to explain that "OS stands for operating system", and half a page (complete with Xcode screenshot) dedicated to things like step-by-step instructions of "Saving Your New Project".

If you are within the target audience, you will likely find these explanations very valuable. Generally I found that little previous knowledge was assumed, and thus terms and concepts that may be confusing to a beginner in other books were well explained.

I gave this book 5 stars because it very effectively conveys the information from simple to more complex concepts in a manner that could be understood by it's intended audience. The enthusiasm that I noticed in the first few pages is carried on right till the end, and will no doubt help keep the beginning programmer engaged in the learning process.

Some of the code examples given do not run properly any longer. For instance if you try to use the \b command for printf they speak about in chapter 5 it simply doesn't work. It adds the numbers to the end of your value instead of backing up and replacing them like it says it should. (For example 50\b5 should give a value of 55, not 505 which is the output in the current version of xCode.) It doesn't inspire a lot of confidence about finishing the book when some of the basic the code doesn't compile properly. I bought this book used so it wasn't a huge loss, but I was less then impressed.

I actually did this sort of backwards. I got halfway through "Beginning iPhone Development" and realized that I needed to learn more about the basics of Objective-C. Therefore, I went back and read through "Learn Objective-C on the Mac". With that I was able to get some working prototypes of apps on the iPhone. However, whenever I'd look at some bits of code, there were things I knew to do because I saw other code do it, but didn't really understand why I was doing it. It was then that I realized I needed to stop playing around and get serious about learning the C language.

I came to this book thinking, "Alright, I'll learn a thing or two, but I know most of this because I'm actually making apps already." Boy was I wrong. Sure this book went over a lot of programming stuff that I knew (if statements, expressions, etc) but it also pointed out a lot of stuff I didn't realize about C.

The main reason I came to this book was to answer some pretty basic questions about pointers.

I see the snippets of code below and wonder, what's the difference?

int* myVarName
int * myVarName
int *myVarName

How come I see the ampersand sometimes?
myVarName = &myInt

What does this arrow thing mean?
myVar->someElement

Therefore, I was very grateful when I realized that there was an entire chapter just on pointers alone. It's been over 10 years since I've used a language that supports pointers, so I definitely needed the refresher. The book answered all my questions and some I didn't even realize I had yet. If you're having problem understanding pointers, get this book for that reason alone.

This was also my first tech book on the Kindle. While the source code snippets was a bit small in a few instances, most of the time there was nothing I missed about the physical book. In fact, I liked being able to review the pointer chapter again and again throughout the day on my iPod Touch. If I had bought the physical book, that simply would not have happened.

Recently I downloaded Kindle for the Mac, and out of interest I chose the Kindle version of Learn C on the Mac to experience Kindle in action. The Kindle version did not display any book page numbers which was immensely frustrating since it was hard to gauge where I was in the book without referring back to the table of contents. Not a satisfying user experience.

The book itself is a little higher in quality than complete drek but by a narrow call. Most of the code is built around creating a DVD library - using the terminal for all input and output - a very historical if not dated approach more suited to a 386 PC from the 80s. It is a very simple project, too simple in my opinion for what the Mac has to offer. Code slices are available from the book's website. A long list of bugs are reported by readers on the website along with author responses. Some of the bugs are just down to bad proof reading, but others are more serious. e.g. operator confusion. Towards the end of the book, a short piece on binary trees and searching is preceded by an even shorter piece on recursion (using factorial as exemplar). The author professes himself a fan of Knuth's work so surely something more substantial could have been presented.

In summary the book takes one straightforward terminal focused I/O application and uses it deliver brief illustrations of C constructs and mechanisms. Apart from a couple of screen-shots from XCode at the beginning, a reader could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled into a time warp of C presentation from 20 or more years ago. Objective-C and Cocoa get mentions that are so brief as to be useless. The 'Mac' component in the book in my opinion is irrelevant. There are better C texts, more substantial and more challenging.