Mac OS X Developer's Guide (Paperback)

by Jesse Feiler (Author) "Mac OS X is a departure from previous operating systems both on mainframes and on personal computers..." (more)
Key Phrases: project structure pane, responder chain, main nib file, Project Builder, Interface Builder, Core Foundation (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Mac OS X, Apple's newest operating system for the Macintosh platform, is profoundly different from its earlier versions because of its similarity to the UNIX operating system. For developers writing software for OS X this means adjusting to two new environments to create applications and to access the enhanced features of the new OS, Cocoa and Carbon. Cocoa is an object-oriented API in which all future OS X programs will be written. Carbon is a transitional technology allowing compatibility of applications written for earlier versions of the Mac OS with Mac OS X.

Mac OS X Developer's Guide focuses equally on Cocoa and Carbon, guiding the reader through these technologies and showing how to write applications in both. It is the first book for Mac OS X developers written for those who are already working on applications, as well as new developers just getting started. It starts off describing the new OS and its development tools then focuses on specific programming issues, providing tips on making the transition from classic Mac OS code to Mac OS X.

* A guide for developers already writing applications as well as new developers just getting started
* Focuses equally on both Cocoa and Carbon environments
* Provides tips on transitioning from writing code for classic Mac OS to OS X
* References Apple online materials extensively, to keep developers up to speed on changes

From the Back Cover
As you begin developing for Mac OS X, you'll face major changes, lots of difficult decisions, and also some terrific opportunities. The Mac OS X Developer's Guide aims to do more than help you make the transition painlessly: It's dedicated to helping you capitalize on these opportunities and positively thrive in this new environment.

Inside is the background you need to get started, the instruction and examples you need to move forward, and the expert advice you need to solve your toughest programming challenges. At a stage where others may struggle to get up to speed, you can work more efficiently while building more powerful, more usable, more robust applications. That's the beauty of Mac OS X, and of the Mac OS X Developer's Guide.

Incisive coverage that will help you:
* Understand Mac OS X, including how it works, its UNIX roots, and how best to develop for it.
* Develop applications using both the Cocoa and Carbon frameworks.
* Optimize your Carbon application with Carbon events and use direct dispatch in Carbon and Cocoa to make your applications more efficient.
* Write Mac OS X programs using C, C++, Java, and Objective-C (includes extensive example code).
* Build applications that take full advantage of all of Aqua's features.
* Port existing applications to Mac OS X.
* Create new applications that run effectively on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X.
* Master critical development skills, including prototyping, managing menus, writing and using services, working with events, manipulating files, designing interfaces, and building reusable components.
* Get around in the latest versions of Project Builder and Interface Builder.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (October 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 012251341X
• ISBN-13: 978-0122513411
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,549,836 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 0 stars, August 28, 2002

By	John D. Love-jensen "eljay451" (Chanhassen, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Disappointed. This book is worthless. The author should not try to write a book while smoking dope. The first half of the book is a Mac-is-great commercial. The last half of the book is a Mac-is-great commercial. Yes, I know the Mac-is-great, I love the Mac, Macs are cool, Macs are usefull, rah rah rah. Unfortunately, the book is content free. No actual developers were involved in the production of this book; no actual developers were informed by reading this book.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars this weak book betrays it's title, February 27, 2002

By	Raymond Walsh (Belmont, CA USA) - See all my reviews

As a C developer of Mac & Win software, I bought this book hoping it would be of some help for porting an existing MacOS application (written in C) to Carbon/Mach-O.

This book is worthless for C/C++ developers.

This book is biased toward new projects written in Objective-C & the Cocoa framework. It ignores C, pushing the objective-c language instead.

The first 100 pages deal with topics as worthless as "what is a programmer" and "the history of the mac os" ... Who cares? Teach me about the Event Manager and Quickdraw vs. Quartz. Did you know that this book makes NO mention of Quartz and only has one page number listed for "Darwin" (pg 141).

I've already returned it and I'm now looking for something else.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars overview only but not of great use, January 23, 2002

By	arzewski (pittsburgh, pa United States) - See all my reviews

somewhat disappointed, specially with a that catchy title: *developer's guide*. Going from the coding material only, it would be extremely difficult for a newbie to start coding an app for the Mac OS X. The 1993 book by Simson Garfinkel and Michael Mahoney, "NeXTSTEP programming: step one, object-oriented applications", is much more diligent in providing detailed guidance on just how to construct an app and use the tools for software development. There were also some confusing remarks when comparing the three programming languages, Java, Objective-C, and C++. And omissions too: for example, no mention that a protocol in Objective-C is like an interface in Java. I didn't see a mention of the fact that there is garbage collection in java and there isn't in Objective-C (but I could be mistaken). In my humble opinion, I would place Java and C++ closer together for their types, while Objective-C is closer to Smalltalk for being typeless. A typed Objective-C, in which the identifiers are not of type id but of a class type such as NSString, or NSData, requires the compiler to do alot more work, just as in the case of C++ and Java (and the author does illustrate the disadvantages of these languages with the example of the Fragile Base Class), so there isn't much advantage in using the runtime features of the Objective-C runtime engine. The author chose, in his examples, the typed form of Objective-C. Most of the book is really a description of the product features of the toolkit to use when doing software development, but not to a detailed degree that one could do without printed manuals. This is no substitute to the manuals. No mention was made of connecting to data sources, internet development, distributed applications. The first 50 pages are about why objects are great in storyline form. But is was pleasant to read. In the old days of nextstep programming, there was a beautifull little book that was called Nextstep programming tutorial by Ann something. In that booklet, examples on how to build an application without the Interface Builder were given. Just code in a text editor, write the make file, and then compile. Only in later chapters did the author in that book detailed how the exact same application could be developed using the fancy tools. With this approach, the developer gets a real feel for the development process itself, which are evenutally hidden by the tools. That is the book that I was looking for when I saw the title of this book.