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Building Cocoa Applications : A Step by Step Guide
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Author: Simson Garfinkel, Michael K. Mahoney
List Price: $44.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0596002351
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates (01 May, 2002)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 32,480
Average Customer Rating: 4.07 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 4 out of 5
Well written book...
I tried using Aaron Hillegass' book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, but this book was much easier to follow for me. I don't mean to rag on Hillegass' book - it's still well written - just a not quite as easy for me. This book takes the time to *explain* the concepts before diving into a program. However, if you're looking for a reference book, this isn't it. This book will teach you how to use Cocoa by taking you through the construction of three fairly fancy applications - a calculator, and two word processing oriented programs.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Too much of some, not enough of other intformation
Let me start off by saying that chapter 1 is completely useless. I bought this book to learn about programming - not to learn tips and tricks for the OS! Chapter 1 has lessons on things like emptying the trash, getting file information, etc.! If I'm buying a book on programming, shouldn't it be assumed that I already know how TO MOVE AND COPY A FILE WITHIN THE OS??!!! Sorry, but it is useless in this book and SHOULD NOT be in there! A serious waste of space by the publishers.That said, the rest of the book is pretty good, but I wish it were more comprehensive (Hmmm, maybe skipping the chapter on how to rename folders and adding some extra programming information would have been good...) and like another reviewer, I wish the code examples were explained better. I would recommend this book as ancillary to more comprehensive programming manuals.
Rating: 4 out of 5
More than adequate Cocoa introduction
Finding the online Cocoa documentation (that comes with the Dev Tools) to be seriously lacking, I went to the bookstore and quickly found this book. Just judging from the table of contents, it's clear the book covers a wide variety of topics, more than enough to get any programmer off the ground with Cocoa. The book employs a tried-and-true programming book style, introducing each topic with a general discussion, and then following by giving you code to type into your program. There are four parts to the book, with the first part being an overview of various things, and each subsequent part containing several chapters in which you study Cocoa features pertinent to a specific project, which you build throughout each chapter.I have only one beef with this book: it may not be enough for very novice programmers. I have previously programmed the Mac Toolbox and I have a lot of C and C++ experience, so I usually knew what was going on. But someone with less experience may have trouble because frequently the book will just tell you to enter a bunch of code, and not really give an adequate explanation of what's happening. Of course, even experienced programmers may find this book a little too "hold my hand and follow me" to actually get started with Cocoa programming. But the book does do a very good job of getting you familiar with the classes and methods you'll be needing to use when you do get off the ground. I highly recommend buying this book, as my experience with it has been very positive. If you do not get the confidence you need to build your own Cocoa apps just from this book, though, then I (as well as the authors of this book) recommend "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass as a supplement. Together the two will give you an even more comprehensive knowledge of Cocoa, as well as two sources to consult if you get confused (two is always better than one). (In addition, before reading any Cocoa book, I recommend reading "The Objective-C Programming Language", which can be found in the Developer Tools documentation under Cocoa. Most Cocoa books do provide a brief Objective-C tutorial, but it will be to your advantage if you already know the language, as these tutorials are not terribly adequate.)
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