Re: Docs
Re: Docs
- Subject: Re: Docs
- From: Jonathan Hendry <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 16:06:01 -0500
On Thursday, August 23, 2001, at 10:34 , Phillip Mills wrote:
On a more positive note, I'd love to see a Cocoa programming book
structured
like the Perl Cookbook. To me, it's a highlight of the O'Reilly catalog
because of it's emphasis on solutions to actual problems, detailed
explanations of *why* things work, why others don't, optional
alternatives
for particular situations, logical chapter structure, absence of fluff,
absence of redundant information copied from other sources, decent
cross-references to other books and 'man' pages....
Did I mention I quite like the Perl Cookbook? :-)
But the Perl Cookbook isn't "Learning Perl", either. The Perl Cookbook
is beyond the scope of Learning Perl, and they serve different
audiences and purposes. Likewise, the content of a "Cocoa Cookbook"
would be beyond the scope of Learning Cocoa.
Learning Perl is quite limited, and a Cocoa equivalent would
be something like "Learning Foundation".
Learning Cocoa is, essentially, trying to be "Learning Foundation",
"Learning AppKit", "Learning Project Builder", and "Learning Interface
Builder".
All in 340 pages, a little larger than Learning Perl which has a much
tinier
scope. Learning Perl doesn't even cover most of the standard Perl
modules.
Ideally, there would probably be a 300 page Learning Foundation book,
which would introduce Objective-C, and then offer chapters covering
the collections, NSString, NSData, filesystem stuff (including
type/creator via
Carbon!), NSSocket and networking, Distributed Objects, Distributed
notification centers, NSUserDefaults, etc.
Readers would then go on to a 300 page Learning AppKit book, which
would cover AppKit things. It wouldn't have to cover Objective-C, or
the collections, so it would save some space for AppKit material. It
should also be able to ignore InterfaceBuilder.
However, I don't think this would go over well with new Cocoa
programmers.
Most would not want to work through a 300 page book on Foundation
before getting to the 'fun stuff'. And if they jump right into Learning
AppKit,
they'd be clueless on how to use Objective-C, Foundation, and IB/PB.
Thus, you get something like Learning Cocoa which mixes it all together
in
340-some pages. Ideally, Learning Cocoa would be 900-some pages long,
but that doesn't seem to fit O'Reilly's "Learning..." model.
So perhaps the ideal would be to start with Learning Cocoa, but to then
go on to the proposed "Learning Foundation" and "Learning AppKit"
books.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: Docs
- From: Phillip Mills <email@hidden>
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