Post Hillegass reading - suggestions

[Shogododdo]

After reading the excellent Aaron Hillegass book what are your suggestions for my next reading material ?

To scope this further, I'll wishing to broaden, advance and deepen my knowledge of Cocoa.

Peace Shogo

[Shogododdo]

*sniffs air* ... *checks cleanliness of armpit body odour * ....

Have I said something to make my post invisible guys ? ....

Several hours, plenty of views but no replies ...

COME ON guys !!!


Shogo
:D

[liptonlover]

Find something that tells you WHY things work. This will increase your knowledge, and you will be able to appreciate how Cocoa and even Mac OSX works. I have noticed and others have pointed out that hillegass really isn't that deep. Sorry I don't have any specific suggestions except Apple documentation.

[Cromulent]

You might want to read The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/ObjC.pdf) (free) for a more in depth look at Objective-C.

Alternatively, if you want to understand the parts of the language which are still pretty much C then the The C Programming Language (http://www.amazon.co.uk/C-Programming-Language-2nd/dp/0131103628/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219344121&sr=8-1) is a must have book.

If you are more interested in learning good programming then I have heard extremely good things about The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html) (free).

[logicat2001]

You'll have to check for yourself whether these have been updated to 10.5 or not, but try Advanced Cocoa Programming (http://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/10148.htm) (by Mark Dalrymple & Aaron Hillegass), and Mac OS X Internals (http://www.osxbook.com/) by Amit Singh.

Singh's book isn't a Cocoa programming manual, but is an exhaustive reference for what goes on in the system.

Good luck,
logicat2001

[whooleytoo]

Hillegass' book gives you an excellent foundation. If you're not already working actively on Cocoa development, I'd strongly recommend it. Books give you a great kick-start, but there's no substitute for learning on the job.

It provides focus and let's you know what you need to know. :)

If you still want/need to dig deeper, Cromulent (above) has listed some excellent choices.

[HiRez]

I wish Anguish, Buck, and Yacktman would update their Cocoa Programming book. I found that to be the perfect compliment to Hillegass' book, well-written and going into great detail (1200+ pages) about the workings of Cocoa. It had a lot of stuff that Hillegass omitted such as multithreading in Cocoa, networking (Hillegass does have some of this in the most recent versions), distributed applications, optimization, advanced Quartz drawing, and much more. Unfortunately it is now almost hopelessly out of date, being written pre-Panther IIRC. No bindings, no Core Data, no Core Animation, nothing about XML, etc.. Yacktman and Buck are writing a Cocoa design patterns book for 2009, hopefully they'll have time and desire to update this book. I imagine the potential market for Cocoa books is significantly larger than it was in 2002.

EDIT: Added Buck.

[Shogododdo]

NOW THATS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT !

I knew I could rely on you guys to chip in and make suggestions.

Thank you Thank you - I appreciate the time and effort taken to reply.

I was already considering the Aaron & Mark book, most of the others with exception of the C-based publication came outta left field of my radar. Very interesting.

I shall investigate one and all. (WhooleyToo) your comment is so right about not beating hands-on experience. I'm just about to begin the foundations of my first app and have decided to take a long time over it, UI design/flow too - taking the tortoise approach rather than the hare.

Peace Shogo

[davedelong]

You'll have to check for yourself whether these have been updated to 10.5 or not, but try Advanced Cocoa Programming (http://www.bookmasters.com/marktplc/10148.htm) (by Mark Dalrymple & Aaron Hillegass)

FYI, Mark's currently working on an updated version. I hope it gets published soon. :)

[Shogododdo]

Thanks Dave,

I'll be interested in that once it is updated. Cruising Amazon I see that most Cocoa based publications are not that up to date (compared with edition 3 of Hillegass).

FYI There is a new book coming out in late Sept on Core Animation I have pre -ordered - I think its O'Reily (but dont quote me on that).

Shogo

[davedelong]

The CocoaHeads group I belong to maintains a list of all the Cocoa and Objective-C related books they can find:

http://cocoaheads.byu.edu/resources/books

That'd be a great place to look if you're looking for a physical book.

[Shogododdo]

http://www.amazon.com/Core-Animation-OS-Compelling-Interfaces/dp/1934356107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219825015&sr=8-1

Sorry I was wrong its not an O'Reily publication its The Pragmatic Programmers.

P.S.
Dave - What a fantastic web site you guys @ byu have ... impressive. If only I lived a few thousand miles west-south-west (I'm in the UK).