I already have kochan's book, but I find these two pretty helpful.
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macOS I feel frustrated and unable
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I already have kochan's book, but I find these two pretty helpful.
I am in the same boat as you. I started to learn 2 years ago and stopped (mom past away). Here is how I started. I asked "What was the easiest language to learn?" People said PYTHON so I bought 'Python-Programming-Absolute-Beginner'. I was a great book and made learning simple through games. Got half way though it and gave up half way though (mom passed away).
4 months ago I started again switched to Objective C learning. The Python stuff helped a lot in understanding Objective C. 3 things are making learning much easier.
1. Programming in Objective-C 2.0 book ( I am on page 180 now)
2. Programming in Objective-C 2.0 videos to go with the book (a must)
3. This site.
I was getting lost in the book but the video helps explain it and helps me adjust to the syntax (terminology). The Videos were made by LiveLessons and steve himself teaches you. O and it you get the book there is a chapter in the beginning that you should not try to absorb when he talks about Hexadecimals I think, that was a nightmare.
4 months ago I started again switched to Objective C learning. The Python stuff helped a lot in understanding Objective C. 3 things are making learning much easier.
1. Programming in Objective-C 2.0 book ( I am on page 180 now)
2. Programming in Objective-C 2.0 videos to go with the book (a must)
3. This site.
I was getting lost in the book but the video helps explain it and helps me adjust to the syntax (terminology). The Videos were made by LiveLessons and steve himself teaches you. O and it you get the book there is a chapter in the beginning that you should not try to absorb when he talks about Hexadecimals I think, that was a nightmare.
One other hint - make sure you're enjoying it, because programming is fun, and learning new languages is even more fun. If you get frustrated, walk away for a while and come back later. It's easy to get into a flap and start trying random solutions to a problem instead of thinking it through, and if you're frustrated you're not going to do that.
And when you get something working, whoop and holler and punch the air, because as Aaron Hildegass says, this stuff is hard. Reward your progress.
There are some useful books at http://www.pragprog.com - I have the Cocoa Programming and CoreData ones.
And when you get something working, whoop and holler and punch the air, because as Aaron Hildegass says, this stuff is hard. Reward your progress.
There are some useful books at http://www.pragprog.com - I have the Cocoa Programming and CoreData ones.
I also had to skip that section. It just comes out of nowhere and gets complex real quick. LOL been slowly trying to figure out that section.
I usually do about a chapter a day. Then every couple of days I will go back and try the exercises at the end of the chapter, trying not to use the book and do it from memory.
I think it also helps to type everything out instead of using copy/paste on repeating sections. I figured out the shift+enter to finish a word/statement the other day by accident. LOL
This is absolutely critical when learning. I wouldn't have believed it prior to learning to program, but there's something incredibly important that must be going on in the brain when you actually manually key this stuff in. It's like when you first learn the alphabet, or cursive and have to keep repeating letters over and over again. It's critical, so don't copy-paste.
Regarding some of the concepts that get skimmed over in Kochan, I can't think of any that are exclusive to Objective-C. They are easily researched online. I would suggest googling around to learn about hexadecimal--basically, each digit in a number goes from 0 to f (f representing 15) for a total of 16 possible values for each digit instead of 0 to 9. Also google around to learn more about bitwise operators, bit-shifting, how numbers are represented in binary, etc. This Harvard CS intro iTunes U course may prove helpful for understanding some of that (particularly how numbers are represented in binary).
Another important concept to understand is how text is encoded. Basically there have been different systems developed over the years for turning a binary number into a character, some of which involve treating 2 or more characters as one character e.g. the newline character: '\n'. When going through the process of teaching yourself programming from books, you'll need to supplement your understanding by using lots of different resources.
I have a background in C#/Java and Obj-C is another world. I have a safari online subscription and Books24x7 so I have access to all the books (and videos for that matter) one would need. I knew Obj-C would be hard, but I am up to the challenge. I should have probably started 'droid because of my background, but
I think I messed up when I upgraded to sdk 4, but I don't know that for sure. I will try the book mentioned in this thread, but I am holding out for more books on the 4 SDK. Maybe I go back to the old version? I can say I had a bit of success getting the examples to run before the upgrade. I ran in to the same problem when I started learning cakePHP, codeigniter, django, and rails. I guess I come to the party a little late
Side note....I very frustrated with the quality of programming books it seems they rush them to press and they are full of errors.
I think I messed up when I upgraded to sdk 4, but I don't know that for sure. I will try the book mentioned in this thread, but I am holding out for more books on the 4 SDK. Maybe I go back to the old version? I can say I had a bit of success getting the examples to run before the upgrade. I ran in to the same problem when I started learning cakePHP, codeigniter, django, and rails. I guess I come to the party a little late
Side note....I very frustrated with the quality of programming books it seems they rush them to press and they are full of errors.
87vert - that is funny we both skimmed over that section. I don't bother doing the exercises at the end of each chapter. What I do instead is try to write my own examples after each example in the book that is why I only do a few pages at night. When I learned the WHILE loop I spent the rest of the night coding my own versions of it so the information sunk in. I hate fractions and book seems to love them.
I also agree the most important thing is to write it out and not copy paste it. it helps sync in. This also helped a lot http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=9780132100724 and it was only $67. It said $75 but when I clicked to buy it was like $67. This better helps describe the chapters and get use to the terminology for the book. It's been a huge help for me!
I also agree the most important thing is to write it out and not copy paste it. it helps sync in. This also helped a lot http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=9780132100724 and it was only $67. It said $75 but when I clicked to buy it was like $67. This better helps describe the chapters and get use to the terminology for the book. It's been a huge help for me!
You explain some of the rush in your very own post. You want iOS 4 books, but are complaining programming books are rushed to press. You want it now, because it's new and you want to start learning it now. The people that write the books have only had access to iOS 4 for a few months. If there were a lot of iOS 4 books available, one could only assume they had been rushed to press.
I'm not insulting you personally at all, I'm just stating that the nature of things is that there are new hot things people want to learn, and publishers want books out on those topics ASAP to meet the demand.
-Lee
This brings up the point for any programming book you get, make sure to check the books website for "errata", meaning errors in the book. You will rip your hair out over something not working only to find out that there was an error in the book and the correction is on the website
Its like this with EVERY type of technical book out there.
Its like this with EVERY type of technical book out there.
If you are really starting from scratch I suggest you try learning C first. This is not hard and shouldn't take long. It is helpful to take a small step first.
Try browsing through the books at
Apress.com
They specialize in programming books. You can buy the books as PDFs so you can read them on your laptop wherever you are while practicing the lessons. The website also provides updates and downloads such as example software.
I'll suggest two books:
Learn C on the Mac by Dave Mark
Learn Objective-C on the Mac by Marc Dalrymple and Scott Knaster
One more, (not sure if this is on Apress):
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass
Try browsing through the books at
Apress.com
They specialize in programming books. You can buy the books as PDFs so you can read them on your laptop wherever you are while practicing the lessons. The website also provides updates and downloads such as example software.
I'll suggest two books:
Learn C on the Mac by Dave Mark
Learn Objective-C on the Mac by Marc Dalrymple and Scott Knaster
One more, (not sure if this is on Apress):
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass
If you think you're in over your head, don't learn Objective C or C first.
Don't.
Some people pick up programming more easily than others, and Obj C is not the easiest path. If you can figure it out, go for it (a lot here have, but that just survivor's bias, a huge statistical fallacy). If you can't, drop it. Go the the teen or even children's section of your local library and you will find much easier introductions to programming. Or look at the dummys/idiots book for one you think will be too easy. Any language. A kid's language.
Really.
Logo, Squeak/Scratch, Python, Basic, some toy programming language, whatever.
After enough of these easy intro to computing books starts seeming too childish, and you can answer the problem sets better than a 5th grader, then you'll be ready for C and Obj C.
Don't.
Some people pick up programming more easily than others, and Obj C is not the easiest path. If you can figure it out, go for it (a lot here have, but that just survivor's bias, a huge statistical fallacy). If you can't, drop it. Go the the teen or even children's section of your local library and you will find much easier introductions to programming. Or look at the dummys/idiots book for one you think will be too easy. Any language. A kid's language.
Really.
Logo, Squeak/Scratch, Python, Basic, some toy programming language, whatever.
After enough of these easy intro to computing books starts seeming too childish, and you can answer the problem sets better than a 5th grader, then you'll be ready for C and Obj C.