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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. control-click on the window icon." what window icon, huh. I struggle with this book a little bit, it's well organized, and I like the general method of teaching that Mr. My only gripe is that sometimes the author jumps from one thought to another without filling in the blanks. 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 also like that quite rapidly there are challenges and users are asked to tackle some programs without being walked through it line-by-line. For example ".
Going back to the book and using it as a reference, it's sometimes difficult to remember that. Hillegass takes. Finally, sometimes there's code that describe things "not to do". It's also a fairly complete book, that starts with "hello world" and goes to some fairly advanced topics. 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. "Oh yeah. 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.
Excellent book by someone who seems to have a good grasp on Cocoa and Objective-C.
Almost all the people at my last company that got into iPhone development said that this is *the* book to start with to get started, and I agree. Even though this book is specific to Mac OS X desktop software development, it's by far the best book to get a solid foundation in Cocoa and Objective-C before learning the specifics in the iPhone SDK.It took me about 80 hours to get through this book, doing all of the example programs. This is the book I started with to get into iPhone development. Hillegass actually teaches a Cocoa class, and you can tell he is a great teacher from reading the book. After that, it felt like I had taken a 5 credit course in college. This will teach you Xcode, Interface Builder, Cocoa, and Objective-C. You'll feel like you accomplished something cool after each chapter.Before starting with the book, I already knew several other languages in-depth, notably Java, Perl, and some C. It may be a little too advanced for those without solid programming experience, and Objective-C looks very foreign to those who haven't used it before, but it's really not once you get used to it.
You can tell the author has taught many students and knows what they need to hear in order to learn the point at hand. This book is remarkable. I love how the author conveys how a Cocoa programmer would talk about or think about a code sample. I'm a Ruby & Java programmer diving into Objective C, Cocoa, and iPhone programming. Great writing style, good pace, love it.
It's probably not the best for learning Objective C, but for learning how to code for the Apple or iPhone - this is really the best book I have found for getting started with Apple API's. Really excellent book and has been recommended by numerous friends. I'm a 10+ year windows programmer, but decided to buy one of these fruit products and learn how to write and iPhone app. Pick up a good book on Objective C, and then this one - your library will be complete for getting you going. If you need way more in-depth and complicated features of the OS, this might be a little too beginner, but it's great for beginners and will proudly occupy a good spot on my shelf.Written by a guy from Big Nerd Ranch, I've gone to Big Nerd Ranch training seminars before - and their top-notch.
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