Reviews for Learn Objective-C on the Mac (Learn Series)

1. Well worth reading

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2010

   Having read the "Learn C on the Mac" book from Apress, I enjoyed this one much more. It is very well written in a conversational style that explains difficult concepts in a very approachable way.
   
   Just be aware that there are an awful lot of typos and errors in the text which is inexcusable for a technical book. Apress really dropped the ball in this area, which is a shame because the content deserves better.

2. Fantastic book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   I think this is a Fantastic Book. Clear, Easy to Read, even Entertaining.
   Yes, you do need to be a Programmer experienced in something already, but it does state that.
   Got me up to speed very quickly from having previously worked in different environments with 'older' languages.

3. Very good introduction (if you already know C)

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   This is a well written and easy to digest introduction to Objective C, touching on all the main areas where the language extends traditional C. As a Java developer I must say that I was glad I had a background in C even though I hadn't written any in 13 years. If you only know Java, read up on C syntax before you start. This book assumes absolutely no previous knowledge of OOP, so Java (or other OO language) developers will find the theoretical discussion of OOP concepts redundant but their implementation details in Objective C very valuable.
   
   There is only one chapter that introduces AppKit and UI development and the rest of the chapters contain only command line based examples. This, in my opinion, is a very good thing indeed. The AppKit chapter is enough to satisfy the curiosity and you make you feel that you could start a project using the Apple docs or another book. The command line examples in the rest of the book mean you can focus on the language itself rather than being distracted learning the details of a UI framework which really deserves it's own book to do it justice.
   
   For someone completely new to Obj C and Mac/iPhone development, given the prerequisites mentioned above, you will feel ready to tackle your first in-depth Obj C/Cocoa project after reading this book.

4. Lack of hands on... more about how to OO programming, not objective C

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, November 12rd, 2009

   I bought this at other peoples recommendations and it not what its advertised. If you have not done C before, dont waste your time. This books title should be "Object Orientated programming using Objective-C" because its 300 pages of OO theory.
   
   Started off well... but the its "Open this file, we've done this". There's no hands on and when learning a language you need full code listings to enter so that you can have experience with the syntax and errors.
   
   A 2nd complaint is the lack of GUI teaching. 1 tiny section on Cocoa... poor indeed.
   

5. Great introductory book.

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2009

   Having worked my way on some simple Objective-C, I decided that I needed a book to help me get a better grasp of the language.
   
   I'm very happy to say that this book was the right choice. It's not for completely novice programmers. However, if you have some decent experience with any other OOP language you should have absolutely no problem going through it.
   
   The best part of the book is the layout and structure. It's something many code books tend to forget. Everything from typefaces to spacing is there to make reading easy and help you quickly spot info. parts on repeated readings.
   
   It's also very straight to the point. No messing about with a lot of theory - this is a practically minded book.
   
   All in all, worth buying.