Product Description

Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Every Mac OS X system comes with all the essentials required for programming: free development tools, resources, and utilities. However, finding the place to begin may be challenging, especially if you have no prior development knowledge. This comprehensive guide offers you an ideal starting point to writing programs on Mac OS X, with coverage of the latest release – 1.4 "Tiger."

With its hands–on approach, the book examines a particular element and then presents step–by–step instructions that walk you through how to use that element when programming. You′ll quickly learn how to efficiently start writing programs on Mac OS X using languages such as C, Objective–C(r), and AppleScript(r), technologies such as Carbon(r) and Cocoa(r), and other Unix tools. In addition, you′ll discover techniques for incorporating the languages in order to create seamless applications. All the while, you can follow along on your own system so that you′ll be prepared to apply your new Mac OS X skills to real–world projects.

What you will learn from this book

• The major role the new Xcode plays in streamlining Mac OS X development
• The process for designing a graphical user interface on Mac OS X that conforms to Apple′s guidelines
• How to write programs in the C and Objective–C programming languages
• The various scripting languages available on the Mac OS X system and what tasks each one is best suited to perform
• How to write shell scripts that interact with pre–installed command–line tools

Who this book is for

This book is for novice programmers who want to get started writing programs that run on Mac OS X. Experienced programmers who are new to the Mac will also find this book to be a useful overview of the Mac development environment.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203501 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

From the Back Cover
Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Every Mac OS X system comes with all the essentials required for programming: free development tools, resources, and utilities. However, finding the place to begin may be challenging, especially if you have no prior development knowledge. This comprehensive guide offers you an ideal starting point to writing programs on Mac OS X, with coverage of the latest release — 1.4 "Tiger."

With its hands–on approach, the book examines a particular element and then presents step–by–step instructions that walk you through how to use that element when programming. You′ll quickly learn how to efficiently start writing programs on Mac OS X using languages such as C, Objective–C®, and AppleScript®, technologies such as Carbon® and Cocoa®, and other Unix tools. In addition, you′ll discover techniques for incorporating the languages in order to create seamless applications. All the while, you can follow along on your own system so that you′ll be prepared to apply your new Mac OS X skills to real–world projects.

What you will learn from this book

• The major role the new Xcode plays in streamlining Mac OS X development
• The process for designing a graphical user interface on Mac OS X that conforms to Apple′s guidelines
• How to write programs in the C and Objective–C programming languages
• The various scripting languages available on the Mac OS X system and what tasks each one is best suited to perform
• How to write shell scripts that interact with pre–installed command–line tools

Who this book is for

This book is for novice programmers who want to get started writing programs that run on Mac OS X. Experienced programmers who are new to the Mac will also find this book to be a useful overview of the Mac development environment.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

About the Author
Michael Trent has been programming in Objective–C since1997 and programming Macs since well before that. He is a regular contributor to Steven Frank’s www.cocoadev.com website, technical reviewer for numerous books and magazine articles, and occasional dabbler in Mac OS X open source projects. Currently, he is using Objective–C and Apple Computer’s Cocoa frameworks to build professional and consumer applications for Mac OS X. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Beloit College of Beloit, Wisconsin. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.

Drew McCormack has a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and works as a computational scientist in the Theoretical Chemistry group at the Free University in Amsterdam. He is involved in developing the Quantum Chemistry software ADF (www.scm.com), which is run the world over on computers ranging from desktop Macs to massive supercomputers. He programs regularly in Python, C++, Objective–C, Fortran, and Bash, and in his spare time develops the Cocoa financial software Trade Strategist (www.trade–strategist.com). Drew maintains the Maniacal Extent website—a reference to the chaotic dimension, time—which details his various interests and activities (www.maniacalextent.com).

Customer Reviews

This book got me started!!
This is a brilliant book.
It got me started a couple of months ago when I got my first Apple Mac. It explains everything a beginning developer needs to know. Even if you have got some kind of programming experience you will be highly surprised to see how much stuff it's hidden within Mac OS X from the 'everyday' user.

By the end of the book you will have a complete hands-on knowledge of the most technological instruments Apple freely distributes to all the users of their fantastic OS. If you know nothing about programming: Buy this book.
If you know something about programming but want a grounding on Mac OS X development: Buy this book.

Fabs

Not that great.
Truly disappointing book and I get the distinct feeling from the over glorified praise that the authors are a little too attached to their Macs, we get it, you love them stop going on about it and teach me.

Before purchasing this book be sure that you have a very good understanding of basic/novice aspects of OOP otherwise you WILL be lost! The coding examples are not practical and some of them introduce you to concepts that aren't explained to you until later chapters which can obliterate your learning aspirations.

Each time the book introduces you to a new aspect of C/Objective-C it should have a short "Try it out" section instead it tries to build up 3 or 4 (what can sometimes be completely new) concepts and rolls them all into 1 "Try it out" so you will find yourself flicking pages frantically to and fro trying to better your understanding of what is actually happening, even though the book explains how each example works it sometimes makes a poor job of it.

What you should have a good understanding of before getting this book:
Object Orientated Programming(OOP) Concept
Constructors/Initializers
Inheritance (and multiple inheritance)
Memory Management (Allocation and De-Allocation of memory)
Interfaces/Protocols
Pointers and Pointer Arithmetic (VERY IMPORTANT)
The Verboseness of Objective-C Method/Function calls

I can only hope that this is the first time Michael Trent and Drew McCormack have never wrote a book of this nature as it is a poor sloppy attempt.