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macOS Programming in Objective-C e-Book?

paul.b.davis

paul.b.davis

macrumors 6502
Original poster
So I am wanting to take the plunge and start learning how to program, mainly for a hobby (and a way to pass the time at work) and possibly write a few apps to sell off (in the distant future).

I am looking right now at the e-Book version of Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan. I have heard this book recommended before by other sites, and I was just wondering what everyone here's opinion was.

I have almost no experience programming with the exception of what I remember (very little) from a high school C class and doing BASIC on my TI-83 in high school while I was supposed to be doing calculus.

So any thoughts on this book would be helpful.

Thanks in advance.
 
It's the best book on any programming language that I've ever read. If you want to learn Objective-C, buy it.

(As an aside, I greatly prefer paper over e-books, but of course that's just a personal opinion. If you like e-books better, go with the e-book. It's probably cheaper anyway.)
 
it's cheaper, no waiting time, and I can print out a few chapters here at work, so I can read them on paper...thanks for the advice


now for the plunge
 
That book is pretty old now. It is a good introduction to Objective-C 1.0, but unless there have been some significant editorial changes over the past 2 weeks there will be zip in there about GC or using GC instead of retain-release for memory handling.
 
garethlewis2 said:
That book is pretty old now. It is a good introduction to Objective-C 1.0, but unless there have been some significant editorial changes over the past 2 weeks there will be zip in there about GC or using GC instead of retain-release for memory handling.
Click to expand...

I think it'll take a bit of time, but I'd expect new books to be released soon which cover Objective C 2.0.
 
garethlewis2 said:
That book is pretty old now. It is a good introduction to Objective-C 1.0, but unless there have been some significant editorial changes over the past 2 weeks there will be zip in there about GC or using GC instead of retain-release for memory handling.
Click to expand...

will retain release still work in OC-2?

just for now while I am learning
 
Yes retain/release will still work in Objective-C 2.0. GC is a complete and total hack job in Objective-C 2.0. You have to enable it in your project, it is disabled by default in XCode 3.0, this is leading some developers to question Objective-Cs future in the Apple development roadmap. Some are speculating that something like Ruby will become more common. It is easier to program in, and it's only real downside being that it is interpreted.
 
I wouldn't say it's a hack job! It works well, and it's fast. It has to be opt-in, otherwise it would seriously break backwards compatibility with existing Objective-C code. What's the problem?
 
I personally don't have a problem with it, but after using a language with Ruby for a while to solve some very simple and complex problems, it startles me at how old Objective-C 2.0 is. The GC is fantastic, it should have been there from the start rather than tacked on, but being spoiled by Ruby and Pyhon, it makes you wonder why you have to jump through hoops just to produce output from an array, etc.
 
ObjC is old, but still top-notch. I come from a strong C++ background, and Objective C is a bit of fresh air, if you ask me. The only thing I really miss is operator overloading.

As for Objective C 1.0 and 2.0, I think it will be a useful knowledge to firstly learn ObjC 1.0 and then move on to 2.0. It may prove valuable to know how some things work under the hood and why the need for garbage collection was so great in Objective C from the start.
 
Objective-C 1.0 texts will be just fine for starting out. All 1.0 code should be valid 2.0 code. Once you're comfortable with 1.0, you can get "The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language" in PDF form for free from Apple and catch up on the new features.
 
Objective-C is one of those languages that I think you can just use the free Apple docs to learn. Anything else a good C/C++ would do.
 
I am all for free!

I bought the book, "Objective-C for Absolute Beginners: iPhone, iPad, and Mac Programming Made Easy". So far it does a good job of explaining things. I am only up to page 78 so I cannot verify the entire content! The good thing is that the examples in the book are still valid and works for Xcode 3.2.6. I have tried the free docs from Apple and they are too complicated for me. I guess that is why I have to pay someone to teach me how to program through this book. I hope I can write whatever I want for any device I want soon. I pray whether it be for the iPhone, iPad, or Mac, I can program anything! I hope to have the most joy in the process. Amen....
 
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