Dan: these might be of use. I’d also add Craig Hockenberry’s book to the list.
I’ve been writing XHTML / CSS since late 2004 - which I learnt through building RapidWeaver themes. In the summer of 2007, shortly before I started full-time at Realmac HQ, I wrote a fair bit of non-object-oriented PHP (taught by Ben during my summer working at the office). Since then, I’ve continued hacking away with the PHP, whilst going Object-Oriented with Objective-C.
If you’ve got a question you want to ask, fire away. All previous questions are tagged Ask for your viewing pleasure.
Last summer, I flew to the States for Big Nerd Ranch’s Cocoa Bootcamp. It’s not cheap, but it’s taught by Aaron Hillegass: the guy who wrote the book on Cocoa - and I learnt an incredible amount. Talking of books, I read a fair amount of those too - and played with a lot of sample code, hacking away at pet projects to see how things work.
If you’ve got a question you want to ask, fire away. All previous questions are tagged Ask for your viewing pleasure.
If you’re looking for a neat way to add a little bit more polish to an iPhone app, then this is 17 lines of code that you might be interested in. A slick fade-out of the Default.png (loading screen) to your app’s usable interface.
If you write Cocoa, or have the remotest interest in feasibly doing so (rumour is that this Cocoa thing works on a pretty hot mobile device, after all) then Cocoa with Love should be in your RSS reader.
After my recent Cocoa recommendations, this updated title from Apress gets a thumbs up (though I’ve yet to read it). If it’s anything like the rest of the series it’ll be fantastic.
(via Jim Dovey - if you’re in the US, be sure to use Jim’s Get-Rich-Quick-Amazon link. Annoyingly it’s not listed on Amazon UK yet)
Dear Java lovers: Please continue to think the Xcode, Objective-C and Cocoa development environment for the iPhone is subpar. I am very happy to continue making money coding apps for the iPhone without the competition.
Since my return from the Big Nerd Ranch just over a week ago, I’ve received a number of emails asking “What books are you reading and what would you recommend to those interested in Cocoa?”. Depending on your background, there’s a number of excellent books available. Here’s a low down of some of the books I’ve been enjoying and learning from recently…
Learn C on the Mac ~ Lacking any real background in programming, the first place to start is to learn C. There’s some well-respected books on the language, but they’re also incredibly dry and hard reads. This title from Apress is both approachable and full of the foundations you’ll need.
Learn Objective-C on the Mac ~ The sequel to “Learn C on the Mac”, this is another great title from Apress. Its worth remembering that before you get to the Cocoa framework, you might want to ensure you’re comfortable with Objective-C. This continuation from the C book is well-written, as you might expect, and one of the books used as course text for the first portion of the Cocoa Bootcamp.
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (Third Edition) ~ Widely known as “The Bible” you’ll want a copy of this for your bookshelf. After a bit of preparation with the previous two titles, this book will be the one to tackle: exercises, challenges and more to get you on your way.
Learn Cocoa on the Mac ~ I don’t actually own this one (yet - it’s not on sale until September) however after reading the first two in the series, I’ll be picking up a copy of this alongside the obvious Beginning iPhone Development title too.
There’s tonnes of titles out there for Cocoa: so if you’ve got your own favourite, post it as one of Tumblr’s spiffy Answers.
I’m heading to Atlanta next week for the Big Nerd Ranch’s Beginning Cocoa Bootcamp whilst my comrades head to WWDC. The 7-day course (which starts on the 12th June) is one of the last that Aaron Hillegass is teaching and (unusually) there’s still three places left. It’s kicking off on the Friday of WWDC (and certainly not cheap) but if you’re wanting to learn Cocoa this is the place to be.
I seriously can’t wait.
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