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Title: Cocoa Programming for Dummies by Erick Tejkowski ISBN: 0-7645-2613-8 Publisher: For Dummies Pub. Date: 03 March, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Thirty Bucks (list price) for weak authorship, weak editing
Comment: I must echo decker's complaint about the editing, which really is horrendous.
But my criticism of the book is deeper still. On pp. 55 - 56 in discussing the use of number formatting for output in the interface, the text describes the "bug" as resulting when "the count of digits in the decimal protion doesn't match between the two numbers". This is a material misstatement, and neglects any attempt to explain the real cause of the problem that the formatting is intended to solve: The inexact representation of (most) decimal fractions in machine representation. Yes, this is an advanced programming topic - and may not be of interest to beginning programmers; but there is no excuse for giving an incorrect explanation instead. Why does this book waste pages and pages on repetitive explanations, yet remain incapable of providing a sentence or two on one of the most fundamental facts for computer programmers. This insults the intelligence of even a beginner.
Chapter 6 (for example) contains repetitions of very basic material introduced in Chapters 3 and 4, some it word-for-word duplication of passages on outlets and actions and their connections in Interface Builder (pp.117-128). Where was the editor during the production of this material? This whole repetition seems to be for the benefit of introducing the Objective-C keyword "id".
Later, on p. 121, the author misses a golden opportunity to introduce the reader to the benefits of Cocoa's naming conventions for accessor functions in classes. The method that returns the value of an instance variable can (and should!) have the same name as the instance variable. Many advanced features of Cocoa (especially in Panther and Xcode) become much more usable if one follows this convention. It couldn't have taken more than a page or two to introduce the subject, yet the book repeats itself annoyingly on several other topics. One suspects neither author, editor, nor reviewer knows anything about many important Cocoa topics. What a waste!
Then, further, the inclusion of some material seems inappropriate for this introductory level. For example, why waste several pages digressing on the use of the File Merge utility. No beginning programmer needs to worry about this, and there are far less risky ways of modifying the interface after files for it have been created.
"Cocoa Programming for Dummies" finds its way to the top of my list of "Worst Programming Books Ever Published." I felt after finishing it that the reader would know EXACTLY as much as the author about Cocoa programming - no more, and no less. In other words, Tejkowski "holds nothing back"; he's told us EVERYTHING he knows about Cocoa programming. Perhaps I should be more sympathetic: Why did the acquisitions staff for the Dummies series rope a RealBasic programmer into writing a Cocoa book? Couldn't they find someone more qualified? The Dummies series generally handles its material in a light-hearted and clever fashion; how did it sink so low in this fiasco?
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Cocoa starting point if ...
Comment: I've been trying to teach myself Cocoa for over a year now. OS X is an absolutely stunning piece of software, and I love the idea that Apple includes in the box a full set of developer tools I can use to create my own little OS X masterpiece.
The problem, however, is the learning curve. For a first-time programmer, Cocoa is one tough nut to crack. There are lots of third-party books out there now. Unfortunately, they are all geared toward experienced programmers. Every book assumes fairly extensive C or OOP programming experience, and none cover basic programming or Objective-C in sufficient detail for the complete programming newbie.
While this book isn't really an exception to the rule, the approach is definitely more newbie-friendly. I purchased the book on a Thursday, and finished it on Sunday evening with a much greater appreciation and understanding of Cocoa technology.
What made the difference? For one, by the time this came out, I already had some exposure to the underlying technologies: I trudged through Apple's Objective-C documentation (hard-going for non-programmers, but after a couple of read-throughs, the material starts to gel). I did the Currency Converter tutorial, which got me familiar with Project Builder and Interface Builder, the two most important tools in Cocoa development. I read various other portions of Apple's on-line documentation, and looked at some tutorials available on the web. As noted, I'd also taken a crack at some of the other books available on the subject, throwing in the towel on all of them before hitting page 100 or so. None of this taught me how to program in Cocoa, but it gave me enough background to tackle this book and understand just about every topic covered.
If, and probably only if, you've at least looked at Cocoa and Objective-C before (or have significant experience in C, Java, Smalltalk, or other OOP), you will be able to not only work through, but understand, the exercises in this book.
And the exercises are very practical and clearly explained. Rather than build a book-length, professional quality application, the author builds small, toy applications to demonstrate Cocoa patterns that you can actually use to build your own software. For example, the chapters on text handing, window management, and file and folder management, are clear and concise, allowing the reader to work through them quickly and without complication. This fast and dirty approach, at least for me, had the added benefit of allowing me to get through the book in less than a week, take a step back, and appreciate how all I learned could be used to start building my own, more complex project.
I'd like to thank Mr. Tejkowsi for being first to market with a Cocoa beginner's book that actually works for beginners. His effort gave me a taste of the power of Cocoa, and the confidence to return to other, more advanced texts that I'd walked away from before. Thanks to him, I'm not ready to give up on Cocoa just yet!
Rating: 3
Summary: Not too bad...but the editor should be shot
Comment: A decent introduction - but it starts off assuming you already know C (like most intro to Cocoa books -- When will someone write a learning to program with Obj-C/Cocoa for beginners new to programming?).
The book could use more detail in describing why you do certain things in Obj-C/Cocoa instead of just saying do it this way.
But the worst part is the huge number of errors and inaccuracies in the book. Every chapter contains multiple errors - usually with missing steps or method names changing between steps or being differnent in the pictures. The editing is HORRIBLE. This really should be .5 Edition - it really is too error ridden to be a 1st edition.
If you are looking for a book to get you up to speed on Project Builder and Interface Builder (based on the Dec. 2002 Developer Tools) then it is a decent introduction. But don't expect this to get you started in programming for OS X if you don't have any real programming experience. And the constant errors in editing are pretty bad; you have to keep on your toes to make sure you account for them or sometimes the examples won't work.
Finally, to the cocoa book writing community in general -- please address the market for new programmers who want to learn to program in Obj. C/Cocoa and who do not have any extensive (or any at all) programming experience in C.
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Title: Objective-C Pocket Reference by Andrew Duncan ISBN: 0596004230 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, 2nd Edition by James Duncan Davidson, Inc. Apple Computer ISBN: 0596003013 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 20 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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Title: Building Cocoa Applications : A Step by Step Guide by Simson Garfinkel, Michael K. Mahoney ISBN: 0596002351 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $44.95 |
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Title: Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass ISBN: 0201726831 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 03 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $44.99 |
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Title: Cocoa Programming by Scott Anguish, Erik Buck, Donald Yacktman ISBN: 0672322307 Publisher: SAMS Pub. Date: 20 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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