Love this book! | Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition)

Excellent book | Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) | Aaron Hillegass

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	• Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) Aaron Hillegass Addison-Wesley Professional, 2008 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 107 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Must Have Book

I loved this book. I wish I had this book when I was starting Cocoa Programming. The book is easy to read and is suitable for noobs - intermediate Cocoa programmer. Hillegass presents difficult topics (e.g. Core Data,) in a clear and easy to understand manner. I only wish a little more time had been spent on OpenGL.

Love this book!

Oddly, I already got through two other objective-C books (that are actually recommended by Hillegass) before this, and this book hit just the right notes as far as depth of explanation, etc.

After having a library copy for over a month I bought this one and am in the middle of annotating and hi-lighting mine.

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Excellent book

Excellent book by someone who seems to have a good grasp on Cocoa and Objective-C.

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Got to have my Cocoa

I have heard such great reviews about The Nerd Ranch that I had to purchase a book by one of its founders. They are renowned for educating developers on the Apple platforms.

Well worth the cost and I wish that I had purchased this book much earlier. Before I had purchased iPhone programming books.

I specifically purchased the book to deepen my understanding of Key Value Coding and Key Value Observing (Chap 7); of Helper Objects (Chap 6); Core Data (Chap 11, 30) and Using Notifications (Chap 14).

The book is well written and it is obvious that Aaron Hillegass is an experienced educator who understands how to communicate and transfer knowledge.

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Helpful and well laid out, slightly difficult writing style

I struggle with this book a little bit, it's well organized, and I like the general method of teaching that Mr. Hillegass takes. The first few chapters take it very slow, which I liked, and take the student through examples of code line-by-line, which can be very god for a beginner in a new language.

I also like that quite rapidly there are challenges and users are asked to tackle some programs without being walked through it line-by-line. It's also a fairly complete book, that starts with "hello world" and goes to some fairly advanced topics.

My only gripe is that sometimes the author jumps from one thought to another without filling in the blanks. What starts out at the beginning of the book as being very verbose, sometimes becomes so terse that you have no idea what's being conveyed. For example "... control-click on the window icon..." what window icon, huh?

Finally, sometimes there's code that describe things "not to do". Going back to the book and using it as a reference, it's sometimes difficult to remember that.. "Oh yeah.. this is a "don't do this." The layout and typography could have fixed this by using boxes, or colors or shades to indicate this, but the layout and editing seems to be pretty low-budget in this book.

However, given all that , I still give it four stars for its completeness of the topic and for the depth of understanding of the material by the author. I would rather have an accurate book from an extremely knowledgeable expert, than a very pretty book from a so-so programmer.

I hope to someday attend Big Nerd Ranch in person, until then, the books will have to do!

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The best-selling introduction to Cocoa, once again updated to cover the latest Mac programming technologies, and still enthusiastically recommended by experienced Mac OS X developers.

?Aaron?s book is the gold standard for Mac OS X programming books?beautifully written, and thoughtfully sculpted. The best book on Leopard development.?

?Scott Stevenson, www.theocacao.com

?This is the first book I?d recommend for anyone wanting to learn Cocoa from scratch. Aaron?s one of the few (perhaps only) full-time professional Cocoa instructors, and his teaching experience shows in the book.?

?Tim Burks, software developer and creator of the Nu programming language, www.programming.nu

?If you?re a UNIX or Windows developer who picked up a Mac OS X machine recently in hopes of developing new apps or porting your apps to Mac users, this book should be strongly considered as one of your essential reference and training tomes.?

?Kevin H. Spencer, Apple Certified Technical Coordinator

If you?re developing applications for Mac OS X, Cocoa® Programming for Mac® OS X, Third Edition, is the book you?ve been waiting to get your hands on. If you?re new to the Mac environment, it?s probably the book you?ve been told to read first. Covering the bulk of what you need to know to develop full-featured applications for OS X, written in an engaging tutorial style, and thoroughly class-tested to assure clarity and accuracy, it is an invaluable resource for any Mac programmer.

Specifically, Aaron Hillegass introduces the three most commonly used Mac developer tools: Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments. He also covers the Objective-C language and the major design patterns of Cocoa. Aaron illustrates his explanations with exemplary code, written in the idioms of the Cocoa community, to show you how Mac programs should be written. After reading this book, you will know enough to understand and utilize Apple?s online documentation for your own unique needs. And you will know enough to write your own stylish code.

Updated for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, this revised edition includes coverage of Xcode 3, Objective-C 2, Core Data, the garbage collector, and CoreAnimation.

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