Customer Reviews
Best book to start with! - By: Mr. R. Das, 27 Aug 2008 
Awesome book, very approachable. For anyone coming to Mac programming for the first time, this is the book to start with.
Not as scary as I thought. - By: Mrs. A. C. Penny, 09 Jul 2008 I've had a project on the back burner for some time that required me to get to grips with Cocoa: no ifs, no buts. My timing wasn't ideal as XCode had gone from version 2 to version 3 without the documentation being updated, so I've been gingerly playing with Cocoa for about 5 months, but not really getting very far owing to the hurdles presented by the many interface changes.
Starting this book was nothing less than a revelation. I'm up to p77 of 418 pages & am surprised how quickly I'm getting to grips with tricky objective-c syntax (although it's really not too bad once you stop being scared of square brackets) & working with Interface Builder. The trickiest subject is memory management, & I must say I was rocking backwards & forwards gibbering 'this is hard, I'm not stupid' & clutching tightly to my degree certificate as Aaron recommends, but even this rather murky subject is beginning to sink in.
His writing style is very fluent & his many years of experience teaching people this technology is evident from the content. I'd shy away from saying this is a book for beginners, but if you've got a smattering of programming experience (PHP & a spot of Ruby is my background) & want to write good programs for the Rolls Royces of home computing, then this book has got to be at the top of your shopping list (assuming you've already bought a Mac that is! ).
Beware Xcode3 is here! - By: Mr. A. J. Trimbee, 08 Jul 2008 
I've just bought the 2nd edition of this book (yellow cover) to save money. It seems to be a good book - clear & well laid out... BUT THERES A PROBLEM...
To use this book, you download Xcode3 tool from Apple.com (easy & free)
The 2nd Edition of the this book (Yellow cover) relates to Xcode2 & is badly out of date.. its not possible to follow the picture instructions since one of the key applications (interface builder) has completely changed.
So I would strongly advise to buy the 3rd Edition (grey/green cover)... even though its a packet more expensive... I guess this is the cost of evolution!
Unless of course you would like to buy my 2nd edition.. which I now can't use?? :D
The perfect starting point for learning Cocoa/Obj-C - By: S. M. Metcalfe, 14 Jun 2008 As someone who made the switch to Macs/OS X just over 18-months ago, my interestin how the OS worked led me to buying this book. It's probably the best computer book I've bought full-stop.
This is THE BOOK you need to buy for a first-class authoritative introduction to Cocoa, the programming environment for OS X.
A programming book that doesn't put you to sleep - By: Tas Frangoullides, 27 Nov 2003 I've just finished reading "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" & have to say its amongst the best programming books I've ever read. It's aimed at people with C or Java experience who are new to objective C & Cocoa. The author demonstrates his skills as a teacher by delivering informationin a progressive & easily digested manner. He begins by introducing the language & tools with a basic random number generator application & then builds on this with a number of tutorial applications. Topics covered include localisation, custom views, mouse & key events, fonts, images, printing, cut & paste, drag & drop, timers, sheets, printing, & creating your own Interface Builder Palates & controls. Cocoa is vast but this serves as an excellent starting block, covering the essentials & tasters required to progress deeper. Its very easy & enjoyable to read with challenges at the end of each chapter to help solidify your understanding. I read it from cover to cover which is unusual for me with a programming book.
I've been using OS X 10.3 which has had changes to the development tools since the book was written For example Project Builder is now called XCode, has code completion facilities & some of the menus have moved. However this didn't prove to be a problem & differences were rather obvious.
Can't really recommend it any higher!
