The Cocoa frameworks are some of the most powerful frameworks for creating native desktop applications available on any platform today, and Apple gives them away, along with the Xcode development environment, for free! However, for a first-time Mac developer, just firing up Xcode and starting to browse the documentation can be a daunting task. The Objective-C class reference documentation alone would fill thousands of printed pages, not to mention all the other tutorials and guides included with Xcode. Where do you start? Which classes are you going to need to use? How do you use Xcode and the rest of the tools?
This book answers these questions and more, helping you find your way through the jungle of classes, tools, and new concepts so that you can get started on the next great Mac OS X application today. Jack Nutting is your guide through this forest; he’s lived here for years, and he’ll show you which boulder to push, which vine to chop, and which stream to float across in order to make it through. You will learn not only how to use the components of this rich framework, but also which of them fit together, and why.
Jack Nutting's approach, combining pragmatic problem-solving with a deep respect for the underlying design philosophies contained within Cocoa, stems from years of experience using these frameworks. He'll show you which parts of your application require you to jump in and code a solution, and which parts are best served by letting Cocoa take you where it wants you to go. The path over what looks like a mountain of components and APIs has never been more thoroughly prepared for your travels. With Jack's guidance, the steep learning curve becomes a pleasurable adventure. There is still much work for the uninitiated, but by the time you're done, you will be well on your way to becoming a Cocoa Master.
* Begin to really get to grips with the full Cocoa toolset—practical, hands-on learning
* Become familiar with the core concepts at the heart of every Cocoa application
* See which parts of the iPhone SDK overlap with the Mac OS X development tools so you can explore both Mac and iPhone development
* Packed full of goodness and enthusiasm for the Cocoa frameworks from a developer perspective
What you'll learn
* How to actually make your own Cocoa applications—this is much more than just a quick introduction to Cocoa!
* Which classes, of the dozens included in Cocoa, are truly central to Cocoa development
* How to best use MVC architecture concepts in a Cocoa application
* How the various pieces of the Cocoa frameworks fit with each other and into the MVC architecture
* Which parts of Cocoa truly enable "visual programming", letting you reap the benefits of proven, reusable code libraries that Apple gives you for free
* How to recognize recurring design patterns used throughout Cocoa, and put them to proper use in your own code
* How to approach Cocoa from different programming environments
* How to use the facilities provided in Snow Leopard to create software that distributes itself automatically among all available CPUs, improving the user experience for your users.
Who is this book for?
Anyone with basic understanding of object-oriented programming who wants to try out Mac OS X application programming, as well as iPhone developers who want to extend their knowledge of Cocoa Touch to include the Mac-specific technologies included with Cocoa.
About the Author
Jack Nutting has been using Cocoa since the olden days, long before it was even called Cocoa. He’s used Cocoa and its predecessors to develop software for a wide range of industries and applications including gaming, graphic design, online digital distribution, telecommunications, finance, publishing, and travel. When he’s not working on Mac or iPhone projects, he’s developing web applications with Ruby on Rails. Jack is a passionate proponent of Objective-C and the Cocoa frameworks; At the drop of a hat, he will speak at length on the virtues of dynamic dispatch and runtime class manipulations to anyone who’ll listen (and even to some who won’t). He blogs from time to time at www.nuthole.com.
Dave Mark is a long-time Mac developer and author and has written a number of books on Macintosh development, including Learn C on the Macintosh, The Macintosh Programming Primer series, and Ultimate Mac Programming. His blog can be found at www.davemark.com.
Jeff LaMarche is a longtime Mac developer, and Apple iPhone Developer. With over 20 years of programming experience, he's written on Cocoa and Objective-C for MacTech Magazine, as well as articles for Apple's Developer Technical Services website. He has experience working in Enterprise software, both as a developer for PeopleSoft starting in the late 1990s, and then later as an independent consultant.
Book Details
- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 17, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1430218592
- ISBN-13: 978-1430218593
- File Size: 17.5 MiB
- Hits: 2,216 times
