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Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition)
 
 
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Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

Stephen G. Kochan (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)


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Book Description

January 8, 2009 0321566157 978-0321566157 2

THE #1 BESTSELLING BOOK ON OBJECTIVE-C 2.0


Programming in Objective-C 2.0 provides the new programmer a complete, step-by-step introduction to Objective-C, the primary language used to develop applications for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS X platforms.

 

The book does not assume previous experience with either C or object-oriented programming languages, and it includes many detailed, practical examples of how to put Objective-C to use in your everyday iPhone/iPad or Mac OS X programming tasks.


A powerful yet simple object-oriented programming language that’s based on the C programming language, Objective-C is widely available not only on OS X and the iPhone/iPad platform but across many operating systems that support the gcc compiler, including Linux, Unix, and Windows systems.

 

The second edition of this book thoroughly covers the latest version of the language, Objective-C 2.0. And it shows not only how to take advantage of the Foundation framework’s rich built-in library of classes but also how to use the iPhone SDK to develop programs designed for the iPhone/iPad platform.

 

Table of Contents


   1    Introduction

Part I: The Objective-C 2.0 Language

    2    Programming in Objective-C 

    3    Classes, Objects, and Methods

    4    Data Types and Expressions

    5    Program Looping

    6    Making Decisions

    7    More on Classes

    8    Inheritance

    9    Polymorphism, Dynamic Typing, and Dynamic Binding

  10    More on Variables and Data Types

  11    Categories and Protocols

  12    The Preprocessor

  13    Underlying C Language Features

Part II: The Foundation Framework

  14    Introduction to the Foundation Framework

  15    Numbers, Strings, and Collections

  16    Working with Files

  17    Memory Management

  18    Copying Objects

  19    Archiving

Part III: Cocoa and the iPhone SDK

  20    Introduction to Cocoa 

  21    Writing iPhone Applications

Part IV: Appendixes

  A    Glossary

  B    Objective-C 2.0 Language Summary

  C    Address Book Source Code

  D    Resources




Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book spends half the time talking about the Objective-C language itself and half the time talking about Apple's Foundation and Cocoa frameworks. The chapters are well organized and concepts are well explained, so you end up with a solid foundation in the language. It's an easy read even with very little programming experience. The book doesn't cover Cocoa or the other higher level frameworks, but you'll be completely ready to pick it up by the time you're done with this book." 

About the Author

Stephen Kochan is the author and coauthor of several bestselling titles on the C language, including Programming in C (Sams, 2004), Programming in ANSI C (Sams, 1994), and Topics in C Programming (Wiley, 1991), as well as several Unix titles, including Exploring the Unix System (Sams, 1992) and Unix Shell Programming (Sams 2003). He has been programming on Macintosh computers since the introduction of the first Mac in 1984, and he wrote Programming C for the Mac as part of the Apple Press Library.  He maintains a web site and support forum for Programming in Objective-C 2.0 at classroomm.com/objective-c

 


Product Details

  • Paperback: 624 pages
  • Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition (January 8, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0321566157
  • ISBN-13: 978-0321566157
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
138 of 144 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is both comprehensive and easy to understand. The sequence of chapters chosen to be read chronologically is well thought out (e.g. having the reader use static data types before introducing the generic id type, or having the reader declare and implement accessor methods before introducing the property and synthesize directives). The end of chapter exercises are also short (i.e. quick to complete) but also thoughtfully designed.

The author chose to make this book serve not only as a reference, but as a tutorial. In other words, a bit like the "... for Dummies" series in its hand-holding (i.e. tutorial) style. However, this book is certainly not for "dummies" as the author does not assume the reader to be slow or requiring interjections of humor or casualness. Other books will have authors write things like "Now grab a slice of pizza before we hit this really hard subject!", but this author thankfully spares the reader of this. Kochan is concise and direct. There are very few wasted or unnecessary sentences.

Kochan does not assume prior Objective-C, Cocoa framework, or X-code knowledge. However, if you have experience with just about any procedural or object-oriented language, you will have a much easier time with learning any new language, including Objective-C. If you do not have experience with ANY other language, then you will still have a difficult time with learning all of the Objective-C language as some topics just by their very nature are difficult to grasp immediately without practical experience.

Although there is a chapter each on the Cocoa framework and iPhone development, this book is focused on the Objective-C language and Apple's Foundation framework. Other resources will have to be utilized to learn Cocoa or Cocoa Touch.

BOOK'S TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction
2. Programming in Objective-C
3. Classes, Objects, and methods
4. Data Types and Expressions
5. Program Looping
6. Making Decisions
7. More on Classes
8. Inheritance
9. Polymorphism, Dynamic Typing, and Dynamic Binding
10. More on variables and Data Types
11. Categories and Protocols
12. The Preprocessor
13. Underlying C Language Features
14. Introduction to the Foundation Framework Foundation Documentation
15. Numbers, Strings, and Collections
16. Working with Files
17. Memory Management
18. Copying Objects
19. Archiving
20. Introduction to Cocoa Framework Layers
21. Writing iPhone Applications
22. Appendix A. Glossary
23. Appendix B. Objective-C 2.0 Language Summary
24. Appendix C. Address Book Source Code
25. Appendix D. Resources

You may also want to consider reading Apple's developers' guides:

-Learning Objective-C: A Primer
-Object-Oriented Programming with Objective-C
-The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language

Apple's guides are not easy for a novice, but having read them before reading Kochan's book definitely made using his book significantly easier and faster for me.

In summary, this book will make learning Objective-C about as easy as it can be since it starts with the assumption that the reader has no prior programming knowledge.
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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic book organization! January 11, 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am a web designer and developer and I've programmed in a lot of languages (i.e. HTML, javascript, actionscript, visual basic, etc.). I wanted to learn Objective-C as the quickly as I could. I quickly found out that not having experience in programming in C (the predecessor to Objective-C) made it hard to understand the reasoning behind the code syntax and finding resources that didn't assume I knew C was almost impossible...

After going through the first three chapters of this book in less than an hour, my confidence in the language has increased exponentially. The book is roughly 624 pages, but I feel like I could code the samples and finish the book in just a few days...

The book is organized into four main sections:
I: The Objective-C 2.0 Language
II: The Foundation Framework
III: Cocoa and the iPhone SDK
IV: Appendixes

The separation of these main topics, Objective-C Language features and the Foundation Framework for example, almost guarantees that there won't be much confusion if you are learning the language for the first time and that there will be a distinction between the topics and concepts for each section.

Kochan does a good job of creating a deep understanding of the material instead of simply saying `just write the code and we'll explain later'. For example, each chapter provides instructions on how to fulfill basic concepts using Objective-C such as writing classes, inheritance, loops, operators, etc. At the end of each chapter, there are `Exercises' which may range anywhere from 5-9, which more or less tests the reader's comprehension on the material that was just covered.

I bought the Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK and Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) before this book and I should have done the exact opposite. This book can serve as a foolproof foundation and reference guide for either of the aforementioned books and definitely shortens the learning curve to mastery.
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Was this review helpful to you?
82 of 96 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Note: Typos have been fixed since the edition I originally purchased. I've kept my original review below, which was influenced by the number of typos and formatting glitches I encountered in the original edition. Now that it's all been rectified, there is NO BETTER BOOK for learning Objective-C 2.0 than this book.

*** ORIGINAL REVIEW (noted deficiencies corrected in updated revisions) ***

I'd love to recommend this book as the gateway to learning to program Mac OS X applications, but unfortunately I cannot. It contains more than a few typographical errors, especially in the first few chapters. Those new to programming in C may end up confused and unable to understand why their programs will not compile. This is unacceptable for this type of book.

Beyond typos, my second gripe is the lack of exercise solutions. This book provides challenging exercises at the end of each chapter that are designed to hone your skills and solidify your understanding of taught topics. Frustratingly, there does not seem to be a source containing exercise solutions. None are found in the book, and surprisingly -- nothing is offered on the book's web page either. Nada. Learning is difficult when you cannot check your solution against the author's intended solution.

My surmise is to blame the editors -- someone unaccustomed to working on programming/technical books likely did the final layout.

I learned C Programming over 20 years ago, thanks in large part to Stephen G. Kochan's original 1988 masterpiece, "Programming In C." I picked up his latest book looking to master my Objective-C programming skills. Personally, I accomplished my goals -- but only because I have a 20+ year history of programming in C (and many other languages). Those new to the language may have to hobble through typos.

This book (minus typos) does an excellent job teaching you Objective-C 2.0. Knowing ObjC is a prerequisite to learning the Cocoa framework for Mac OS X.

Final thoughts:

TWO to THREE STARS for those new to programming. Don't frustrate yourself with typos and lack of solutions to chapter exercises.

FOUR to FIVE STARS for experienced C/C++ developers looking to jump to Objective-C 2.0.

NOTE: Those giving FIVE STAR reviews to this book knowing that it contains typos are not providing any service to those who are new to programming. What good is it to reward a publisher for poor performance? With any luck, the publisher will fix future versions.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book if you are into Programming
Bought this book to try and learn it but didn't really have the time.
But while I was doing it, it was very easy to understand comes with everything except the computer.
Published 6 months ago by Neil S. Martin
Object oriented programming guide
And just that. You won't find much on how to code for the iPhone nor iPad, but it's a good guide on how to get things started.
Published 11 months ago by Pi For Breakfeast
I was surprised
When I started to read this book I tried to do all exercises. In the beginning of this book all information for me were very interesting, but then I read chapters 16-19 I... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Evgeniya
Easy to read
It's a great programming book. It's easy to read. Since I'm neither an Apple user nor an Object-C programmer, I like the fact that the author starts from the very scratch. Read more
Published 12 months ago by H. M.
Excellent book and support
Steve has written a very clear and concise book on Objective-C 2.0. I have purchased other books on this subject but they aren't as structured
and are often confusing at... Read more
Published 12 months ago by garyw
Great book for learning Objective-C
I am a c, c++ programmer and recently I decided to code for mac and iphone, but I've run into some syntax and concept problems with Objective-C. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Popp Armino Catalin
Great Beginners Guide
First off, I'm an absolute beginner. The extent of my programming was HyperTalk back in the early 1990's, since then I've done nothing with scripting or programming. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mark
Best programming teacher in the Industry
Since I first started to program in the late 80's, Stephen Kochan has always been there, like a lighthouse in the messy port of call that harbors programming books. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Raghuram Krishnaswamy
BEST OBJECTIVE-C BOOK
Kochan's book is the best Objective-C Programming book available. For beginners, it is very clear and easy to understand, but is also comprehensive for the more advanced or those... Read more
Published 13 months ago by bunders
Good Primer
I've been programming in a variety of languages for over 15 years, but had a hard time learning to think in Objective-C so I could develop on OS X. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Matthew Linebaugh
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
stephen kochan, dynamic typing, language features, dynamic binding, reference counting, overriding methods, bit operators, application kit, dictionary objects, cardl release, stevekoc staff, autorelease pool, variable intptr, dateupdate function, dealloc method, following message expression, four address cards, struct date today, autorelease message, arraysum function, super dealloc, pool drain, type cast operator, int numerator, retain count
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Interface Builder, Julia Kochan, Tony Iannino, Making Decisions, Program Looping, Jamie Baker, Extension Through Inheritance, Memory Management, Output Enter, Methods Method, Copying Objects, Cocoa Touch, Modify Program, Collections Program, Linda's Address Book, Basic File Operations, Arithmetic Expressions, Asking Questions About Classes, Output Type, Language Summary, Multiple Arguments, Set Objects, Scope Revisited, Foundation Tool, Output Programming
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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