Customer Reviews

iPhone SDK Development (The Pragmatic Programmers)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bought a Macbook, bought an iPod Touch, bought iPhone SDK Development book (in beta at the time) ... read, experimented, followed tips and used on-line examples from excellent web site associated with book ... result: "BeatTheSwine09" game now for sale in iTunes app store. Thank you Dudney and Adamson for providing the right stuff at the right time.

Clearly written, well-organized, comprehensive (includes chapters on debugging, performance tuning and marketing). The right mix to train and guide programmers through all stages of the development and deployment of an iPhone app.

I have been reading beta-versions (preview PDFs) of this book for quite some time now. I have watched it grow from just a few chapters to a complete tour-de-force on iPhone development. I even asked for a web services chapter in the author's website forums, and sure enough, the authors added such a chapter. Surely they didn't do it just for me, but the fact that the authors took feedback from readers during the beta phases of the text, is a testament to their willingness to produce a useful book.

The book contains EVERYTHING from getting started to writing a Twitter client, using Core Data, the accelerometer, and the Map Kit to name a few. The early chapters feature a lot of hand-holding, which is a good thing for those new to XCode and iPhone development. The later chapters feel more advanced with less hand-holding. For my tastes, I could have used more guidance in the later chapters, but it is understandable since the later chapters feature more advanced topics.

The most exciting thing for me is my first app has now been published on the App Store! This book played an integral role in getting my app through the approval process. There is a chapter at the end of the book especially useful in this regard.

I have been learning iPhone and Mac OSX programming for the last 9 months, coming from no programming experience. I can put together a basic iPhone app, and I feel confident in my ability to make sense of code, particularly Objective-C.

With that said, I have been waiting for this book to come out for several months, but the wait was well worth it. The authors of this book openly state that to get the most of of the book, the reader must have a solid programming foundation (though nothing too extreme) to understand what is going on. This book is not the first book on iPhone application development one should read.

The strongest aspect of this book is that it plays off the fact that readers know what they are doing, at least somewhat, and takes the extra step to explain what exactly is going on behind the scenes programmatically. I think this is incredibly valuable because other intro to iPhone development books do not seem to want to overwhelm their readers. I really learn a lot better when I know why things are occurring, and this book supplies that information. If you are serious about becoming an iPhone developer, make sure you add this book to your library because this book is definitely the best book on iPhone development out there.

Just make sure you understand Objective-C, are comfortable with xcode and IB, and have at least tinkered with the iPhone SDK before diving in.

I have virtually no programming experience. Other than a solid beginner's understanding of LAMP (unix, apache, mysql, PHP and scripting stuff in general), I've never done more than fiddle with code. I do have a cursory knowledge of programming concepts, but that's about it.

This book would be a challenge for an absolute beginner, but not an insurmountable one. It starts off slowly, introducing you to basic concepts and building basic UI elements and simple apps. The authors quickly turn up the heat, however -- concepts that are learned in the early chapters are only repeated a few more times, then the 'hand holding' is over... you're expected to know by now to import your header files, @synthesize, etc. As a beginner, I actually *liked* this. My projects often bombed, and it forced me to think *logically* -- why did this build fail? It forced me to look at the error and consider the solution. It forced me to go back and relearn the concepts that I was simply typing out so I could move on to the next chapter's tutorial. It's a tough love (but mostly gentle) way of encouraging a beginner to learn the fundamentals instead of simply aping/mimicking what the writers' had coded. It will also save intermediate/advanced programmers from constant hand holding and let them jump straight to the heart of the project.

I really, really enjoyed the 'tone' of this book -- some writers break their necks in an attempt to sound funny/jokey/non-threatening. This is very much a professional book but still maintains a welcoming conversational tone. It strikes a 'just right' balance.

For absolute beginners -- I'd highly recommend that when you order this book and are waiting for it to ship, get to know Xcode and Interface Builder. Particularly IB, it's fun to play with and easy to dive into. Practice dragging views, making connections and adding outlets/actions, etc. It will help you get started that much more quickly once the book does arrive.

I've owned dozens of wrox, apress etc books since the 90s, and this is one of the few that I would not hesitate to recommend to both beginners and advanced programmers with no Xcode/Obj-C/iPhone dev experience. Get it -- it's that good (and the online support forum is invaluable, the authors are very quick to respond to questions).

This book is pretty good, it starts off great, really great. But very quickly the book starts to goes off the rails.

General example. You're following along the text, and with detective work you've filled in may small gaps which they don't mention. You notice they didn't mention something in the worst way possible. You have to find out by looking at the function they mention in the text, and seeing which instance variables they have in it that you were never told to create.

It's not that they're saying, next we made some XIB files and tied them to UIViewControlers named X, Y.
I mean they literally start referencing custom classes they never mentioned before, in a function they paste into the books text.

Let me give you a concrete example:
CoreData chapter, you're going along and filling in the gaps. Then you get to the Navigation subsection of CoreData, and all of a sudden they're referencing not one but TWO new UIViewControllers ( complete with custom XIB files! ), that they never mentioned before.

How do you find out about it? Well it's in the function you're typing into your editor as you read the book.
No mention what so ever!
--

They refer to the downloadable source files for the sections of code, however those xcode projects are basically complete versions. So when you read it, you can't tell what you're supposed to have by now that they didn't mention, and what comes later that you should not copy.


Good book with decent info, but i think they ran out of paper and users are left to guess their way thru instead of being able to focus on the lessons.

I spent some time looking into what books to get when deciding to learn how to build apps for the iPhone. I wasn't going to get this one as the reviews said it would not be good for new programmers. I am fluent in HTML and CSS, and have dabbled in a few others, but I am a designer not a programmer. I got this book as a gift and I am flying through it. It really holds your hand and goes into detail as to how things work. Personally, I have found it best, starting with chapter 4, to go through each chapter twice. I thought that the Head First iPhone Development would be the book to start with, but it is not. I plan to go through that one next.

Pros:
Great detail. Real explains things well. Gives more depth than other books I have looked at. It points out different ways to do the same things but is a very relevant way. The code can be downloaded and is well documented. Most importantly, you do not need to know Objective C to use this book. It will walk you through it.

Cons:
Black and white images and not enough of them. That is the only thing that made me give it 4 out of 5 stars. Should be 4.5 IMO.

If you want to learn how to make apps for the iPhone with Xcode GET THIS BOOK!

I loved this book. I really appreciate the way this book "peels the onion". Starts off with the simplest of apps, and with each successive example brings in all the necessary information on the Apple dev tools, iPhone SDK, Objective C language, and the Cocoa frameworks. Key concepts are adequately explained and unfold gradually.

If you have a C/C++/Java/Python or similar background (who doesn't these days), this book will provide you with all the skills you need to develop great apps. It is not necessary to first learn Objective C before diving into this book. Reading this book is much more efficient than reading the detailed developer documentation distributed by Apple.

After reading this book, I feel completely comfortable tackling any of the APIs and have a thorough understanding of key concepts.

i've had 20+ years of coding, from cobol to C to javascript to MS .NET. this book is my first attempt at objective-C and XCode. where i found confusing and started to get lost, is the switching between Xcode and IB (Interface Builder). I also found it hard to connect the dots and follow the programming flow. Not to mention some sample codes or instructions skip critical details (or assume you knew, such as @synthesize, #import). however, the downloaded samples work and help me to get out of the woods! IMO, to help with connecting the dots and following the programming flow, this book can be a lot more effective if it shows a high level diagram for each sample App.

I'm a big fan of web-based forums, and you can find several forums included Apple's own on app development for the iPhone. But try to get a foundation of knowledge through the forums and you would likely be lost. This book is a very good way to get the first 80% of what you need to know to do a real app. The other 20% will come from searching forums and trial and error.

You have to start somewhere, and this is -- so far -- the best starting point I've found.

I initially purchased this book when it was still in it's beta format from [...], and have since purchased the hard copy from Amazon. This book been an excellent source of information for learning how to build meaningful iPhone applications and includes content relative to the 3.0 SDK. Though I have purchased several books for learning how to build iPhone applications, this one book is by far the most comprehensive and up to date that any other resource. The author does an excellent job of taking complex ideas and breaking them down into easy to implement strategies for building iPhone applications.

Any aspiring iPhone developer would have all of the information they require to build applications with this one book and the free sources of information on Apple's developer site.