Customer Reviews

Learning iPhone Programming: From Xcode to App Store

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

 

 

This is a well written book, but it pushes you into deep water a little too quickly for my taste. Because the SDK provides so much boilerplate code, writing the proverbial "Hello World" app is very easy, but understanding what is going on under the hood is another matter. If you are already familiar with Mac development, Cocoa and Objective-C, you'll be just fine, but even an experienced C++ programmer (as am I) should read something like Cocoa and Objective-C: Up and Running: Foundations of Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch programming either before or simultaneous to reading this book. The main problem is that the object part of Objective-C is based on the Smalltalk object syntax, not C++. The concepts are similar, but the syntax will seem strange. So clean your reading glasses, and buckle up. The nice part about this is that when you're done, you will be familiar with development for Mac, iPhone and iPad.

This is actually one of the two books that I've come to greatly appreciate in my quest to enter the iPhone development game (the other being "Programming in Objective-C 2.0" by Stephen G. Kochan, also available here on Amazon for an excellent price). The printing date puts it at March 2010, which sadly falls a few month before the release of iOS 4.0. Fortunately, however, the vast majority of the example code given within the pages of this tome are unaffected by the iOS revision.

I've been playing around with iOS development for the past couple of months (I've probably got around forty or fifty days of actual coding time under my belt), and thanks to this book, the mystery behind NavigationViewControllers and TableViewControllers are almost a thing of the past.

Interestingly enough, what puts this book ahead of others that I've read (e.g., Beginning iOS 4 Application Development and Sam's Teach Yourself iPhone Development in 24 Hours) is that it teaches those two particular things without skirting around them. It may lack color screenshots, but I'll gladly trade those for having more coverage on one of the most heavily used model schemes in the iOS game.

In conclusion, I can't recommend this book enough. Code samples are still valid, the explanation of said code is outstanding, and it's just overall high quality work.

For an O'Reilly book, I was surprised that this book had some code that would not run (the samples are on the book's website), and there were some critical points that were not mentioned which I found elsewhere. Previous O'reilly books were better written and the code ran without issues. The author places his e-mail address in the front of the book but does not respond to e-mail messages. O'Reilly has a forum for discussion of many of its other books but not this book. The forum could be a great place to get help.

The introduction to iPhone Programming is done fairly well. I think the reader's time is well spent. There are some tips in the book which were certainly helpful. Keep in mind this is the only intro level iPhone Programming book I have read. The small improvements needed in this book leave me recommending someone to look elsewhere to learn iPhone Programming. At least until a new edition is released.

For someone new to programming, the typical path seems to be learn C first, then Objective-C and Cocoa, then iPhone programming. If you do not know these other related languages, the code in the book will not be understandable. I did have a little experience with C++ so the code was not totally foreign.

Dr. Dobb's Journal recently wrote a little about iPhone development. Their main thought was that it took quite a bit of learning to get up and running. Since Cocoa is built from Smalltalk and C, it takes more time to learn than something like Visual Basic. But don't get discouraged - iPhone development seems worthwhile.

I'm an old-school coder and I would not claim myself mastering a platform before writing my own application in that platform. But there are different approaches to write our code in iPhone. The easy (and old) way is using web application with HTML-CSS-JavaScript suite. But to make the apps integrated with iPhone's feature (camera, GPS, compass, accelerometer), we have to choose the native code: with Cocoa and Objective C. This book is a definitive book that guide us in designing such apps. It explores in detail the steps to take in design real iPhone apps. First it guides us to enroll in the iPhone Developer Program, to make sure our codes will be approved to run on a real device (instead of a simulator). The development environment (the Xcode) and iPhone SDK must be installed. Then, while preparing and designing our first iPhone app, we would learn the terms and tools in iPhone apps designing. The following chapters will dig deeper in Objective-C language, design aspects, and essential features to be mastered; including network connection, data handling, sensor, geolocation and mapping, and the integration of the applications. We would also learn the distribution of our application in Appstore. The last chapter mentions the other aspects to learn further to enrich our app.
I consider this is one of the best books available to guide us designing a full featured iPhone app. I found it easy to learn (partially because I knew a bit about C, OOP, and Xcode -- but you don't really need to master them to start learning this book). I like how fast we can learn iPhone programming, guided by this compact book.

After spending some time thinking about how I can update my apps that are in iTunes, I realized that I had moved up a level of app development maturity. I was thinking about next plateaus that I would have not thought possible a couple of months ago. Why? Well, this book was one of the main reasons.

I agree with other reviewers that this book dives into some of the complexity rather quickly and that maybe some other books might be a better place to start if you are a rank beginner but for where I was in my development cycle, that book was at the right place at the right time.

All I know is that I have zero crashes reported from iTunes for my apps and I credit this book and it's explanation around memory allocation to thank for that. Now to move on to my next mountain; working/syncing with a db in the cloud.

With the undeniable success of the iPhone and its impact on the user paradigm surrounding mobile devices, "mobile phone" truly no longer applies in my view, there are so many iPhone programming books.
I particularly like this book as it does follow through on it's subtitle "From Xcode to App Store", Alasdair
Form the new developer to the die hard Mac developer that is looking to take a crack at iPhone programming this book will give you the right level of introduction. That said you will need to follow up with other material to get into specific areas such as Game development, push notifications and other more involved areas on the iPhone, but for the overall principles Alasdair gives plenty of detailed code examples that are easy to follow, also all the surrounding mechanics you need to understand for Apple's App Store.

The book is not bad, but it's outdated. There have been enough changes with xcode 4 and iOS 5 that make the examples in this book outdated. It also does not mention accessibility at any point. It should discuss what is needed for labels, buttons, images, etc to make them accessible. I wish I had known about the versioning before buying the book. I wouldn't say I regret buying it. I did get more comfortable with the platform, but I'm not sure how much will be useful with the latest xcode and iOS.

Learning iPhone Programming is well organized and easy to read book. In first two chapters, it is explained why should we move to creating native applications and how to start the development process. There are few interesting remarks, especially in "Becoming a Developer" chapter. After explaining how to start development, readers are shown how to build very simple - "Hello world" like application, and deploy it on the iPhone/iPod (this will require paid iPhone Developer membership). This is a good start because it lets you feel what Objective-C and what coding within XCode is all about. Further chapters guide you through most common topics you can encounter when starting coding. However, Objective-C and Mac OS X specific topics (MVC) are covered not too deeply - I'd recommend here additional reading (Hillegass) and some books related to Objective-C (e.g. Cocoa and Objective-C: Up and Running). One of the drawbacks is that book doesn't cover iOS 4 and iPhone 4 version and doesn't mention iPhone 4 (e.g. Table 10-1). In general, I like the style of the book, but I would recommend it as a companion book rather then the only source of knowledge. There is another quite interesting position related to iPhone programming - Head First iPhone Development.

If you're interested in developing dynamic iOS apps that provide the user with a great experience you have likely considered or already decided to go the native app route rather than the web app route.
Unfortunately for many developers, especially those that are not familiar with Apple's development ecosystem and their tools, developing a native iPhone application that leverages Cocoa Touch and Objective - C can be a daunting task.
Learning iPhone Programming assumes no prior knowledge of the iPhone SDK and the related tools. It is a great primer for programmers that would like to expand to iOS; though it is very basic in its approach to the material. The process of actually registering as an iOS developer and installing the iOS SDK and XCode are covered in significant detail; as are common tasks like creating provisioning and distribution profiles and provisioning devices for testins. This is certainly not aimed at developers who have written a reasonably complex iphone application, as those readers will probably find the text below there level.
Bottom Line: This is a definite read for any developers that are trying to add iOS development to their resume.
Still for all the texts strengths, it is not recommended for someone who has absolutely no programming experience; there are other more appropriate choices both in texts and technologies.

I think this book is a very good and concise introduction to native iPhone development. After reading the book I now know enough to start coding with xCode. I especially liked that the book concentrates on principles instead of covering every detail. So after reading this book I really have a good overview on how to create apps for the iPhone. I personally don't like the very short chapter on other native platforms. I think this chapter is the weakest of the book, either the author extends this chapter in the next edition or he should provide just a reference to those alternative platforms in the last chapter.