Learning Cocoa

by Apple Inc. and Apple Computer Inc

Cocoa is one of the principal application environments for Mac OS X; its advanced object-oriented APIs allow users to develop in both Java and Objective-C. This revolutionary new way of developing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596001606
• ISBN13: 9780596001605
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 370 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book, highly recommended

This book is a fantastic introduction to the world of programming in Apple's OSX native language, objective-C, and the Cocoa frameworks.It is not a beginners programing guide in that you need to have command of C programing, an understanding of object oriented programing and frameworks, and to a lesser extent some knowledge of the Unix tool concepts (although you can get by with out this for a while). It is very helpful if you have experience with makefiles and the GNU cc, linker and GDB. That said, I think that a beginners can write quite astounding programs in a short time with just the book and the knowledge of C programming and data structures.My experience was that this book was an easy read BUT I have about 20 years of C programing (more in other languages) and extensive experience with Think C and code warrior and their frameworks. I am very competent in Unix programming.One reviewer complained that most of the book can be found on-line. This is partly true but you have to look in a lot of places to find it AND the flow and introduction of subjects makes reading the book that much easier. You will need this material in any case since it presents the meat to support this books intro. You'll find the material on the Developement cd or on apples website http://developer.apple.com/macosx/I give this book two thumps up and a must have for anyone new to Cocoa programming.Richard Rosenlev

A good collection of information all in one place

This book will give you a great introduction to Cocoa but don't expect to walk away with a mastery of the topic. The folks at Apple have taken their many on-line examples and documentaiton and essentially wrapped it in a pretty and more edited format (less errors than on-line version).There's almost nothing in this book that you can not find on-line, but this book does a great job at organizing. I was a bit bummed that the high quality found in other O'Reilley books was not present here, but in general I like the idea of collaboration between Apple and O'Reilley. In another time, in another place this book would have been the standard documentation that came along with the Developer Tools but in this age when we download everything maybe that can't be expected.In bottom line, this is a well edited, well put together book. It will teach you Project Builder and many aspects of developing with Cocoa. However, it's only an introduction.

For beginner who has some C programming experience

I know right off the bat that this book is a beginner book as are all "learning" series from Oreiley. I'm an experienced programmer with prior experience in NeXTSTEP. So, judging from a beginner's point of view, the "object-oriented programming" chapter is very clear and concise, right to the point. The "Objective-C primer" chapter might need a little bit more work. For a C/C++/Java programmer, it should be easy to read, but it lacks some essential information on some of the syntax.From an experienced programmer's point of view, this book is too basic although it does give you a good introduction on how to use the tools.The whole book is pretty much a tutorial. Personally, I think the step-by-step instruction is just way too much. The instructions are usually duplicated in a lot of chapters. You figure that the author should have omitted the basic instructions in the later chapters, but he doesn't.Anyhow, this is still a good book for beginner. I'd like to see "Programming in Cocoa" come out soon though...Chris

Great Programmer's Guide

Great book. Starts off very basic, but gets coplicated by the end. read this book cover to cover and do every tutorial and you should be ready to venture into the world of MacOS programming.

cocoa is served

Excellent. This book has just the right doses of tips and tricks, distilled wisdom of the NextStep way, "best practice" Objective-C concepts, solid examples and brevity. If you have been scouring the Cocoa online APIs, stepwise.com, omni lists, etc., but wishing for more then this book with deliver for you. The diagrams and screen shots are first rate, as is the editing. Examples are very easy to follow. My only complaint is I wish there were sections on printing, threading, services, and other Cocoa topics. Of course they can't cover all the APIs. Hopefully some of these will appear in an "advanced" Cocoa book from O'Reilly.