Apple’s Cocoa frameworks let you write powerful and attractive applications for Mac OS X or the iPhone. With this book plus your existing knowledge of object-oriented programming you can take advantage of Cocoa and create compelling, feature rich, compliant Mac applications for this industry-leading environment.

  • If you need a jump start using Xcode (the IDE used for Mac OS X programming), have a look at Mike Clark’s two-part screencast series.

Audience: this book is aimed at experienced programmers who are new to Cocoa and the Mac. For an entry level book, please see Beginning Mac Programming

Cocoa Programming: A Quick-Start Guide for Developers
Code • Errata • Discussions
380 pages (est), Apr 2010
ISBN: 978-1-93435-630-2

Buy Now

 Buy the eBook and get these DRM-free formats:
  • PDF
  • epub (for iPhone, Sony, etc)
  • mobi (for Kindle, etc)

This title is currently available in Beta. Buy the eBook now, and you'll be able to download successive releases of the eBook as the authors add material and correct mistakes. You'll get the final eBook when the book is finished.

If you buy the combo pack (Beta eBook + finished Paper Book) now, you'll get the Beta eBook immediately. You'll get the finished paper book when it's released (we're currently estimating April 15, 2010, but these dates can change).

 

About this Book

Cocoa Programming: A Quick-Start Guide for Developers shows you how to get productive with Cocoa—fast! We won’t walk you through every class and method in the API (but we will show you where to find that information). Instead, we’ll jump right in and start building a web browser using Cocoa. In just a few minutes you’ll have something that works. A couple of minutes more, and you’ll have code in your custom controller, listening for notifications and call-backs. Soon you’ll have the functionality you’d expect in a full browser. And that’s just the first few chapters…

You’ll learn to use the Apple developer tools to design your user interface, write the code, and create the data model. We’ll show you Objective-C concepts when you are ready to apply them throughout the book. By the end of the book, you’ll be a Cocoa programmer.

We assume that you’re familiar with a C-like language and with the concepts of object-oriented programming, so there’s no messing around—you’ll get right to work. You’ll build your GUI from the visual components that Apple provides for you using the recently updated version of Interface Builder. You’ll write your code in Objective-C 2.0—the first major update to this OO language that’s been around as long as C++. You’ll leverage the Cocoa frameworks to get the same look and feel as your favorite Apple applications.

Cocoa development is both productive and fun! Why not give it a try?

Contents and Extracts

This book is currently in beta, so the contents and extracts will change as the book is developed.

Full Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Using What’s There
  • Methods and Parameters
  • Classes and Objects
  • Instance Variables and Properties
  • Memory
  • Outlets and Actions
  • Creating a Controller excerpt
  • Customizing with Delegates excerpt
  • Adapting our Browser to the iPhone
  • Posting and Listening for Notifications
  • Creating Protocols for Delegation
  • Working with Dictionaries
  • Multiple Nibs
  • Creating Custom Views
  • Displaying Data in a Table
  • Saving data to disk
  • Changing Views
  • Key Value Coding
  • Key Value Observing
  • Cocoa Bindings
  • Core Data
  • Categories
  • Blocks
  • Operations and their Queues
  • Dispatch Queues
  • Up and Out

About the Author

Daniel is the editor for the new series of Mac Developer titles for the Pragmatic Programmers. He writes feature articles for Apple’s ADC web site and is a regular contributor to Mac Devcenter. He has presented at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, MacWorld, MacHack and other Mac developer conferences. Daniel has produced podcasts for Apple featuring the work of developers and scientists working on the platform. He has coauthored books on Apple’s Bonjour technology as well as on Java Programming and using Extreme Programming in Software Engineering classes.