Customer Reviews

Step into Xcode: Mac OS X Development

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

 

 

I am currently more than halfway through this book now and already I can say that I am very happy with my purchase.

Firstly, this is not a programming how-to book. Plus, I don't think it should be your first Mac development book. The purpose of this book is to provide you with a solid understanding of the Xcode tool and to teach you some smart application design methods. I recommend that you start reading this book already knowing some Objective-C and Cocoa (at least a little anyway) because you will take with you so much more than just how to use the Xcode tool. Actually, without any Cocoa programming knowledge, you may just end up confused. The reason I say this is because the examples use intermediate to advanced Cocoa programs to illustrate Xcode as you advance through the book.

This book starts you off with some background information about what happens when you compile a Cocoa application, how the runtime system works and some basic debugging skills. It then instructs the reader to build a command line tool which eventually buds into a mature Cocoa application as the chapters go by, each chapter adding a major feature to the application while introducing additional Xcode features as you go. Some of the Xcode features that I've already learned include: Including a command line tool in a project as a target dependency, how to build and include a static BSD library in a project, using Text Macros to add language-specific code patterns to the Xcode menus, I've expanded my knowledge of Cocoa bindings, how to include a framework target, working with dynamic libraries and more.

Follow the examples! I was actually pleasantly surprised at the Cocoa skills I've learned simply from the examples' code. They are not typical. I've already assimilated the following intermediate to advanced Cocoa programming skills: Calling a command line tool from a Cocoa app using pipes and tasks, building and calling functions from a BDC static library, design skills that promote code decoupling and mixing C and Obj-C conventions together.

I do have some gripes: Technical errors! I've never written a book but how difficult is it to make sure that the samples work once you reach the end of a chapter? And I'm not talking about the intentional errors the author left in the code that are later fixed. For example, in one chapter the book instructed me to add 3 object controllers in Interface Builder. By the end of the chapter the program didn't run because I was never instructed to configure one of the three controllers. I went back to make sure I didn't miss anything. I was able to figure it out myself after some time (another reason you should not be a newbie reading this book) but this error and others should not have made it into the book. Don't authors proof read their own work or at least have a couple of other people read the book and try out the examples? Sheesh!

Also, be warned. I have yet to find any errata or contact info for the author for this book. So if you need help, you may not find any.

This book is an easy read. No nonsense and straight to the point. Most chapters are between 10 and 20 pages, which provides you with plenty of opportunity to stop, rest and take in what you've just read.

I wanted to rate this book ***1/2 for the errors and lack of help, but I can't give half-stars here. This book doesn't deserve 3 stars, so I gave it a 4.

Note [16-MAR-2006]: Wouldn't you know it, I just found the official Step Into Xcode web site complete with downloadable code, errata and author contact info! Here it is: http://six.manoverboard.org/ I now officially increase this books rating from ***1/2 to ****. :)

Fritz Anderson really does a great job covering the ins and outs of Xcode in this book. If you are going to program on the Mac, the in-depth information in this book is a necessity! There are real programming examples to follow along with each chapter, and plenty of screenshots to describe what's going on. I'm glad I purchased "Step Into Xcode," and it has earned a spot on my bookshelf along with Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming" and Stephen Kochan's "Programming in Objective-C".

I'm most of the way through this book and have been losing interest since the first chapter. This book suffers from 3 fatal flaws: incomplete instruction, nonexistent trouble shooting, and poor code design. The first is very frustraiting, if you learn by doing and try to write the code in the book instead of just looking at the included code, you will quickly find your code does not work because the author omitted entire functions from the book. When learning to walk you will stumble, good intro books should account for that and provide you with the means to pull yourself up. This book provides no help to handle problems and you will make many, with the incomplete information along with the general disconnected nature of objective-C & cocoa you, like me may find yourself spending most of your time with this book debugging rather then learning. Finally as a veteran programmer in Win32, Linux, & embedded systems, I found the author's software design sensibilities to be lacking. Functions seem shoved in to classes for little reason, simple data objects took on complex IO functionality; these poor practices are touted by the author as examples of good Mac programming.

In summary I cannot recommend this book, its shortcomings make it difficult to work with, and these difficulties make it nearly impossible to learn from this book.

As to a recommendation, I'd say yes. Step into Xcode is most valuable to those getting started with Xcode, but even for people who have been using it for a little while you are sure to pick up a few tips and tricks.

I bought this book thinking that it might be a nice step by step tutorial for the Cocoa and XCode development platform. It turns out to be not much of an introduction to anything.

Maybe it is just a personality difference or a difference in my learning style versus the style of the book, but I really hated it. Right off the bat, I could not bring myself to care anything at all about the project for the book. I found the whole thing to be a big, confusing, dreadfully boring mess.

I can see that the book covers some interesting features of XCode. It is a shame that the book is not interesting at all for me. I could not sit and read it or get motivated to follow along. Of course, everyone is different. Maybe you will find it to be a real page turner for positive reasons.

Maybe down the road I will find that this book has some value as a reference. It is also possible that this is simply the worst book I've read so far on the subject, but I have to admit that it has a great cover!

This book covers a lot of ground - great for beginning Xcoders, especially CodeWarrior converts. Not quite as in-depth as I thought it would be, based on the description, but well worth the price.