 | | |
| Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) | 
 enlarge | List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $25.95
You Save: $24.04 (48%)
Buy New/Used from $25.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 85 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1369
Category: Book
Author: Aaron Hillegass
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Studio: Addison-Wesley Professional
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
Label: Addison-Wesley Professional
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7 x 1.4
ISBN: 0321503619
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.268
EAN: 9780321503619
ASIN: 0321503619
Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Experiences programmer quicklies learns Cocoa using this book.... August 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've been programming for over 15 years and I wanted to start programming for both the MacOS and iPhone so I needed a good starting point. I've read a few others books on this subject but I was eagerly awaiting the release of this edition(3rd) for the updated sections on XCode and Objective-C 2.0. Definatly the best book on the subject. If you want to learn mac programming and iphone programming(pretty similar) this book will get you started. The one major thing I didn't like(personally but it might help others) was the fact that the same app was used for the second half of the book, I usually don't like when authors do that because it makes it impossible to jump around the book.
Who this book is for:
- People who understand the fundamentals of programming.
- People who want to start programming on the MacOS or iPhoneOS.
- People with zero or very little experience with Mac programming
Who this book is NOT for:
- People without any programming experience. The book does not explain what an array is or how memory works;both of which are needed if you're going to be a serious programmer. If you want to start programming on the Mac get a 'C' basics book first to get the fundamentals down first.
- People with Mac experience might find this book slow all though it does offer new stuff it's bloated with "Begginer" info.
 The Rachael Ray of Mac programming August 1, 2008
13 out of 39 found this review helpful
If you have zero programming experience whatsoever and want to dip your toes in the shallow end of the Cocoa pool then I can see how picking this book up might seem like a watershed experience for you. Aside from that, I'm not sure who its target audience is as there is little congruence between its accolades and its content.
There is nothing, repeat, NOTHING, in here that is not in Apple's free tutorials and documentation. While I too strongly prefer physical objects I can hold and highlight to web pages on a screen, the fact that you get little more than a brief glance at what little material is actually covered will drive you to the electronic docs in the end anyway. What was the point again? Oh, right, Hillegass needs money since he's not really producing marketable software anywhere that I can see.
I was "taught" Cocoa by former NeXT employees much like Mr. Hillegass while doing time at Apple, and while none of them wore goofy looking hats in order to assert their wholly contrived notions of in-your-face individuality, all of the expats I encountered shared some uncannily common traits:
1. They'd never actually used OS X let alone written any commercial software for it, yet there they were telling Mac developers how to do their jobs. I'm sure this has changed since then and at least a few of them have actually had an opportunity to use a Mac once or twice.
2. They don't like learning anything new and will vehemently defend the quality of any random piece of garbage they wrote back in 1988 regardless of how terrible it is.
3. Any time their code is actually proven to be terrible they will fall back on the "fixing it now would be impossible because I'm the only one who really understands it and I don't have time" method of preserving job security.
4. They (not so) secretly think they're better than anyone at Apple who didn't come over on the buyout Mayflower despite the fact that their company and all of its products failed miserably and like to stage numerous petty rebellions against commonly accepted Apple conventions to make sure everybody knows how cool they are.
I won't say that any of the code in here is downright terrible--while it does tend to lack any notion of error handling, very little of it actually DOES anything so how bad can it be?--but I will say that the UIs Hillegass slaps together violate both Apple HIG and common sense in more ways than you could ever want to shake a stick at, making me wonder whether he's still too busy raging against the machine to follow any pesky "rules" or just legally blind. Photos of the man's attire and tattoos have prevented me from completely ruling out the latter, but who knows.
While this level of aesthetic slop might be perfectly excusable in a teenager's blog about TkInter or something, the post-buyout Interface Builder draws all these pretty blue lines on the screen for you so you know when window elements are properly aligned; lines which you really have to go out of your way to ignore. You're not putting on a slideshow for a bunch of guys from a Bangalorean trade school here, you're preparing materials for publication in a book you plan on charging a lot of money for. How about you at least pretend to care for showmanship's sake rather than foster horrendously bad habits amongst those who mysteriously find you worthy of emulation? Writing a lame, overpriced book certainly isn't a crime, but this one in particular can be directly blamed for much of the nonsense that makes every Cocoa-centric mailing list and discussion board completely unreadable due to the manner in which both it and its author are marketed. As such, it annoys me on a near daily basis by proxy.
And as for that exciting all new material in the exciting all new 3rd edition, it's like a really, really bad joke (not to be confused with the numerous other really, really bad jokes which liberally pepper Hillegass' prose [yeah you're no Elaine Boosler there, buddy]). Especially weak is the chapter on CoreAnimation which will teach you nothing more than the fact that there's a class called CALayer that can maybe do some kinda cool stuff if you can manage to think up a slightly less contrived example than the author did after spending what must have been nearly 10 minutes pilfering Apple's documentation (did I mention that it's free yet? Because it is.).
Now I do have to admit that I am truly envious of Mr. Hillegass' ability to schmooze so effectively that lazy people actually believe his watered down version of the information they all have sitting right in front of them is worth its weight in gold. The day he writes a book on exploiting others' weaknesses for profit I'll be the first in line to buy a signed copy because I have absolutely none of these clearly valuable people skills. Until then I would suggest that he focus on taking his final challenge himself and produce a brand new Cocoa application that other people actually use if he wants to be seen as an authority figure on the subject. WebObjects doesn't count.
 The Book to Read and Learn From July 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am just starting on Cocoa programming and Objective-C and Aaron's book is one very useful guide. I recommend it 100% to everyone who wants to learn fast.
Valuable update to a great book July 17, 2008
I was first introduced to the world of COCOA and Objective C programming in Aaron Hillegass' second edition and have been looking forward to the third edition for new material on Xcode 3, Objective-C 2 and Core Animation, etc. I was not disappointed.
The third edition has retained the best of the 2nd edition and adds valuable new material on all the essential topics. Well done Aaron! I'd love to attend one of your courses at BNR ( [...] ) but your new book is the next best thing :)
Great book for beginners July 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is a great book for teaching beginners Cocoa. It gives a broad overview of the development environment and strategies. The updated material for the third edition probably isn't enough to warrant the purchase if you've read the previous versions though. If you are already an advanced developer, you probably won't learn too much new here either.
|
|
|
Best Deals updated 24 x 7 at http://www.dealbro.com | | |