Reviews for Programming in Objective-C 2.0

1. Excellent introduction to Objective C

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

   This book is well written and provides an easy to follow style where each subject is introduced in a structured manner by way of numerous examples. However to fully appreciate the subject the reader is required to complete the exercises and experiment as much as possible.
   
   The book is supported by a forum where answers to exercises and questions.
   
   Highly recommend to anyone regardless of their experience in programming.

2. Out if date if you're using XCode 3.x

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   If you've just bought your Mac, or upgraded to Xcode 3.x, then unfortunately this book is about as much good as a chocolate fireguard because XCode has changed too much! It took half an hour of Googling to find the template required in the very first example. Then adjusted the one line I'm told to do, hit Debug & Run....and nothing.....certainly not what I was told was going to happen (and no, there were no errors). So having taken over an hour to get through the first 3 pages, I've called it quits.

3. Certainly not for beginners

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   I'm rating this badly partly because I feel it's not for beginners (as it suggests) and partly because I don't feel it's relevant to what most people would want.
   
   After 454 pages describing how to program command-line programs, it then says "...However, as useful as [command line programming] is, it is very limited in its capabilities." and "...In fact, the Mac's reputation is based on its user-friendly dialogs and ease of use."
   
   Right. So, you try to teach me about programming calculator and address book command-line apps all the way through the book and then add something about user interfaces right at the end? It hardly fills me with confidence, or the enthusiasm to continue with Objective-C.
   
   Anyone tempted by programming for the iPhone (I guess a large target audience) will feel completely lost from early on. I accept that learning concepts is important, but why wasn't the user interface introduced in the second chapter? Instead I'm told at length about octal/base-8 (without being told what the possible benefits of that is - or even explaining to anyone who doesn't have a grounding in mathematics exactly why they need to care about it) and then treated to a series of boring tutorials. By the end, you'll be sick of calculators and seeing any messages displayed in the Console.
   
   I'm used to the Quickstart Guides (where I learnt PHP) which, for me, are perfect in their structure; you dive straight into making useful code. This book is like telling a learner driver how to service an engine before putting them behind the steering wheel - when they *really* start learning.
   
   After my frustration with this book I looked on the Apple Developer Site and, lo and behold, there's a tutorial that starts by designing the interface. That's so much more appropriate for the Mac! People learn better visually; I understood more about Objective-C in that short tutorial from Apple than I did reading a large chunk of this book.
   
   No doubt I'll go back to the book when I have a better understanding of it all, but I feel like this has been a waste of money and I wish I'd just read the Apple tutorials first.
   
   (Note: I realise the UI is the "Cocoa" framework but I see that as being the most important. Who programs command line programs for the Mac? And more importantly - who buys them?)

4. Good book but may be challenging for a novice programmer

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, January 12rd, 2010

   I'm half way through the book and i'm really enjoying it and finding it a good pace.
   
   I think a complete novice to programming may find the book fairly tough going but anyone with any basic programming knowledge should be OK. I have no OOP experience but do have a lot of procedural programming experience which helps as a basis to start from.
   
   all in all good book but be prepared for a learning curve if you don't already know the basics

5. very good book who wants to learn objective-c but not only iphone fuss !

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12st, 2009

   I have read other books about iphone development but stuck about the objective-c fundamentals. This book gives the basic and more advanced materials of objective-c and iphone programming. I think to be a class iphone developer, I must have very strong knowledge in objective-c and its framework. I would suggest to study this book rather than studying iphone beginner type books or whatever the books are available. When you will feel you have good command on objective-c then you may go to "The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone 3.0 SDK" by Erica Sadun. This is another class book. And please don't forget to study the apple own's iphone and objective-c study materials as well. They are awesome. You should read this book first if you don't have any experience or knowledge in C or even you also should read this book if you have some experience in C or other procedural programming languages. You have to familiar with the syntax of objective-c, most of the time similar to C but in some cases its bit different. this is bit large book so I would suggest not to read only this book, keep it as a reference and study Erica's book if you are tempted to learn how to develop applications for iphone or ipod touch.