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Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (2nd Edition)
Books: Computers: Mac OS X: Item 5
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Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (2nd Edition)by Aaron Hillegass
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70 of 71 people found the following review helpful: Not Perfect, But Highly Recommended, February 23, 2002 Reviewer:HiRez (California, USA) - This was the book I had been waiting for, or at least ONE OF the books I had been waiting for, to really get started with Cocoa programming. The O'Reilly book, as has been mentioned plenty of times here, leaves a lot to be desired, and while it was better than nothing, a wall still remained between me and Cocoa after finishing it. After reading Cocoa Programming for OS X, I feel I can say I "get" Cocoa finally. That's not to say I'm an expert, but that I can complete a simple program now, on my own, using the Cocoa frameworks and concepts. As Aaron says in the book, learing the Cocoa APIs will take much longer. I come from a Java background, with only marginal C and C++ experience. Although Aaron does not speak much about the objective-c language itself, that's ok. Apple's PDF is more than adequate to get that background. There are some things that get glossed over that I wish had been more fully explained, and some things left out altogether that I would have liked to see, such as: -- Spawning and managing multiple threads, thread safety issues -- exception handling, debugging and assertions -- Cocoa "primitive" objects (NSPoint, NSRect, NSRange, etc.), why they apparently don't need to be retained or released, and why they are "NS" objects but don't really behave like them. -- Calling Toolbox routines or those from APIs that have not yet been "Cocoa-ized" (and integrating the Old Way into the Cocoa Way), with examples. Cocoa is nice but once you get away from building a text editor, you will need to dig into this ugly and unfriendly world at some point (unfortunately). For instance, how do I access the Airport card, how do I open and use a network socket, how can I read a DV-encoded stream from a FireWirePort and save it to disk as a QuickTime movie, how do I access a database, how do I use an OpenGL view? -- How to customize Cocoa UI elements. Like if I wanted an NSSlider with TWO sliders, a minimum and a maximum. There is an example of subclassing an NSView in the book, but that's just a drawing panel. To be fair, I'm not really criticizing Aaron for these things. The book has plenty of useful stuff, and I'm sure Aaron wants to write and sell more books, so some advanced Cocoa books that address some of these things as well as others will be welcome...I hope someone is writing them right now. I also hope someone is writing a comprehensive Cocoa API reference, as Apple's is somewhat lacking (Have you seen the phrase "Description Forthcoming" more times than you care to remember? I thought so.) The bottom line is that this is a great book that is a must-have for anyone interested in Cocoa programming. I'd probably rate it four or four-and-a-half stars, but I'm giving it five for being there when I needed it, and being the first really useful book on the subject. The best thing I can say about it is that I can now do things there is simply no way I could have before.
Product Review
There's a reason that a large slice of the open-source movement has defected from running Linux on its laptops to running Mac OS X. The reason is the Unix core that underlies Mac OS X, and the development tools that run on that core. Cocoa makes it easy to create very slick Mac OS X interfaces for software (as well as to create applications in a hurry), and this new edition of Cocoa programming for Mac OS X does an excellent job of teaching its readers how to put a Cocoa face on top of code (Objective-C code almost exclusively). If you know something about C and/or C++ programming and want to apply your skills to the Mac, this is precisely the book you want.
Author Aaron Hillegass teaches a Cocoa class, and his book reads like a demonstration-driven lecture in a computer lab. That is, the book takes a heavily example-centric approach to its subject, beginning with simple announcement windows and proceeding to cover the more advanced controls and object-oriented features of Cocoa and Objective-C. Throughout, he hops back and forth between descriptions of the goal to be accomplished, listings of the code that does the job, and instructions on how to use the Mac OS X development tools to speed the development process. --David Wall
Topics covered: How to write software for Mac OS X in Objective-C and, especially, with Cocoa. The new edition shows how to use NSUndoManager, add AppleScript capability to an application, do graphics work with OpenGL, and use Cocoa under Linux using GNUstep. As well, all the basic controls and design patterns are covered.
Book Description
Preface to the Second Edition I once studied with a wise mathematician named Soo Bong Chae. Dr. Chae had written a few really good books, and one day he told me his secret: "After I write a book, I put it away for two years. After avoiding the book for two years, I read it and rewrite the parts that need work. Then I publish it." The idea was a good one: By ignoring the book for two years, he could revise it with fresh eyes. But that's not what happened in my case. It has, indeed, been two years since I wrote the first edition of Cocoa(R) programming for Mac(R) OS X. In that time, however, I have taught 20 classes using the book as a text. Overall, the first edition was a good book, but it was far from perfect. Where the book was weak, I have suffered. It was with great relish I eliminated these sore spots from this edition. During these two years, Apple has continued innovating upon the strong base that Mac OS X created. Hundreds of tiny improvements were made, and two large changes occurred: Project Builder was replaced by Xcode, and Cocoa bindings were added to Cocoa. Throughout this book, you will use Xcode, and Cocoa bindings are covered in Chapter 6. Also, during these years, I continued my work as a programmer. As my clients asked for certain features to be added to their products, I came to realize that several topics needed to be addressed in a new edition the book. Besides many new "For the More Curious" sections, the second edition has five entirely new chapters: Chapter 7 describes how to add undo capabilities to an application using NSUndoManager. Chapter 28 demonstrates how to make an application AppleScript-able. Chapter 29 shows how you can use OpenGL calls within a Cocoa application. Chapter 30 gives the necessary steps to create a reusable framework. Chapter 31 will get you started creating Cocoa applications on Linux using GNUstep. The final improvement is a physical one: The second edition has a lay-flat binding so that it can sit at your elbow as you work through the book. Although a subtle change, I think it will make your experience with the book and its ideas a little bit more pleasant. I don't get to ignore this book after it has been published-;the quality of the book has a direct influence on the quality of the courses I teach. Is it a good book? Let me put it this way: I am looking forward to going through it with my students a dozen times this year. I guess that says something. Preface to the First Edition Cocoa is a powerful collection of tools and libraries that enable developers to write applications for Mac OS X. iPhoto, iChat, iCal, iSync and Safari were all written using Cocoa. Why Cocoa? Because it allows programmers to develop full-featured applications faster than ever before. The increased speed does not, however, come for free. The new technologies have a steep learning curve. This book will guide you through the ideas and techniques that separate the great Cocoa programmers from the wanna-be's. This book is written for programmers who already know some C programming and something about objects. The reader is not expected to have any experience with Mac programming. It is a hands-on book and assumes that the reader has access to Mac OS X and the developer tools. The developer tools are free. If you bought a shrink-wrapped copy of Mac OS X, the developer tools CD was in the box. The tools can also be downloaded from the Apple Developer Connection Web site ([a href="http://connect.apple.com/" title="http://connect.apple.com/" target="_new">http://connect.apple.com/ ). -;Aaron Hillegass 0321213149P04152004
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