Objective C, Cocoa, And Iphone Programming Books For Beginners | Hacker News Reader

Objective C, Cocoa, And Iphone Programming Books For Beginners

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43 pointsoscardelben10 comments

I learned Obj-C/Cocoa using some of the books mentioned, plus a few others. My opinions for them are below. In general to get into Mac/iOS development:

    1) Learn C
    2) Learn Objective-C
    3) Learn Cocoa (Mac) or Cocoa Touch (iOS) - both APIs are similar

-------------------- C Books: --------------------

Learn C on the Mac, by Dave Mark

    - Very newbie-orientated
    - Hand-holds you through lots of stuff
    - HIGHLY recommended for beginners
    - Written specifically for Mac users (using Xcode 3.x)
    - Won't make you an "expert" in C, but gives you the basics
    - Code examples all available online
    
    Bottom Line: Recommended

Programming in C (3rd ed), by Stephen G. Kochan

    - Well written
    - on-par with "Learn C on the Mac" regarding beginner status
    - Not platform specific (you should know Xcode, TextMate)
    - Code examples don't generally jump chapter-to-chapter
    
    Bottom Line: Recommended

-------------------- Objective-C Books: --------------------

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (3rd ed), by Stephen G. Kochan

    - I haven't fully read this book, but use it as reference
    - Seems to be a great continuation from Mr. Kochan's C book (above)
    - I wish I read this instead of Dalrymple/Knaster's
    
    Bottom Line: Can't give a recommendation because I haven't fully read it

Learn Objective-C on the Mac, by Mark Dalrymple and Scott Knaster

    - Continuation from "Learn C on the Mac", but I didn't like it as much
    - Writing style was a bit confusing at times. I preferred Dave Mark's C book.
    - Mac-orientated (using Xcode 3.x)
    
    Bottom Line: Recommended, with reservations

-------------------- Cocoa Books: --------------------

Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (3rd ed), by Aaron Hillegass

    - Chapters 1-8 were fine. Chapters 9-35 are a NIGHTMARE for newbies.
    - Book uses new terms many times without defining them
        - Better know what a File's Owner is, or else Chap 9 will confuse you, etc
    - For one of the code examples the author wrote "I don't really expect you to 
      understand every line of that code now, but browse through the method and try
      to get the gist."
    - Book must be read sequentially, and code examples must be done sequentially. 
      Code examples in later chapters can reference code 5 chapters back. There's 
      no skipping around in this book, even for unrelated topics. Very annoying as
      a reference book.
    - For non-newbies, gives a "taste" of some of Cocoa's popular API's. You'll 
      have to read Apple's docs to really learn how to use them.
    - Reading this book after getting some Cocoa experience was much easier.
    
    Bottom Line: Very good intro to Cocoa's API's, but NOT for newbies coming 
                 straight from an Objective-C book. Read another Cocoa book 
                 first, program in Cocoa for 3-6 months, and then get this book.

Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X for Dummies (2nd ed), by Erick Tejkowski

    - THIS is the best "newbie" Cocoa book I've read. Very easy to understand 
      and follow.
    - Hand-holds you the entire way.
    - Many "minor" errors in the book and code examples, which is its only 
      downfall. However I managed to figure them all out and get every example 
      working.
    
    Bottom Line: Recommended for newbies. Only caveat is there are a lot of minor
                 errors in the book, but I managed to figure them all out without
                 much sweat.

Dave Mark has also written a new Cocoa book which I haven't read: Learn Cocoa on the Mac, by Jack Nutting, David Mark, Jeff LaMarche. If it's anything like Mr. Mark's C book, it's probably pretty good. Check reviews on Amazon, etc...

--------------------

Also of note, Apple announced Xcode 4 in June 2010, which will replace Xcode 3.x "sometime in the future". Currently it's in beta. It has a very different user interface than Xcode 3.x, meaning just about every Mac programming book will become dated the moment Xcode 4 comes out. Both 3 & 4 appear "similar", but different enough to confuse new programmers.

I've been using the Xcode 4 beta on and off for a few months and I don't think it's that much o a change. GCC was still the default compiler. The biggest change was that instead of having to use interface builder it's all n there. So while it may differ from the current books, a few minutes of familiarization should have you back on track.

As someone just recently getting into obj-c/iPhone development, finding good and up-to-date books is hard. Heck it's even hard to find up-to-date answers on stackoverflow.

For example, the iPhone SDK book from pragprog. they list is great, but it's already a year old.

I own and use a handful of books, but seem to get the most out of online videos, forums, and the sample code at Apple.

Also, I find the "grapefruit" book from APress really good: http://apress.com/book/view/9781430230243

I'm a mobile developer who does tons of iPhone work. I buy pretty much every iPhone book out there: Basically, any book over 400 pages that is up to date with iOS 3 is good enough, as the iOS 4 changes aren't really that useful for the majority of people.

Except for video API's, those changed in 3.2 quite a bit.

I cannot rate Erica Sadun's "iPhone Cookbook" high enough: some of the techniques it showed (especially the truly modal alert views) incredibly helpful, if slightly obscure.

Just be careful not to use the private APIs which are peppered through the book.

This is only an issue with the first version of Sadun's book. She has since cleaned the private API usage up.

Nice iOS screencasts: http://suitmymind.com/blog/category/cocoa-casts

What is your favorite book for learning Objective C ?

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