iOS Best Books for learning Cocoa, iOS and Xcode?

[krravi]

I have been dabbling in writing some programs for the iPad and now i want to try something more.

I would like suggestions on some of the finest books that are not very rudimentary but at the same time not advanced either. I have programming experience and help and online manuals do the work for me mostly. But, i would also like to have it in book format so i can peruse through when i am not sitting before the computer.

Any ideas? I searched through amazon and the reviews are very conflicting for any given book.

My three areas of interest are iOS. Working your way around XCode and Cocoa.

I use Microsoft Visual Studio a lot and though Xcode doesnt seem so far fetched, i still like to know things beforehand rather than trying to figure it out.

 

[dejo]

Have you visited the Guides and Stickies at the top of this very forum?

 

[krravi]

Have you visited the Guides and Stickies at the top of this very forum?

Just checked it out. I wanted books rather than online tutorials. And i did find links to some books. But was curious to see what people in the forum recommended.

 

[domness]

Definitely try out the iPhone Developer Cookbook by Erica. Very good indeed.

 

[flummoxed]

I researched this very question about a year ago.

I found the most recommended Cocoa book was Cocoa Programming for Mac OSX 3rd Edition by Aaron Hillegass.
He worked for NeXT before Apple bought it and then worked for Apple, so he knows the subject well. I bought the book and have not finished it yet but it seems pretty thorough.

Also if you do not have a solid grounding in basic C programming I would highly recommend learning this first. That is what I am doing. I discovered that I could not get very far understanding Objective C unless I understood the underlying C foundation and syntax.

The best book I can recommend for C is C Programming: A Modern Approach 2nd Edition by K.N. King This is an awesome textbook. It is used by many colleges and Universities to teach C. It is thorough and easy to follow. Lots of good examples and exercises.