Re: Learning Cocoa Book - the problem
Re: Learning Cocoa Book - the problem
- Subject: Re: Learning Cocoa Book - the problem
- From: jgo <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 11:16:52 -0700
>
At Fri, 2001 June 01 11:11:15 -0400 Eric Doggett wrote:
>
> At Friday, 2001 June 01 05:18 Stefan Arentz wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 2001 May 31 at 14:13:12 -0400, email@hidden wrote:
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>> Now, how the #@$%*# do I go about really learning how to use it?
>
> The only real way way to learn Cocoa is to create a project and
>
> start working on it. You do not learn Cocoa by reading a book,
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> you learn Cocoa by doing real coding work so start you begin to
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> ask questions. When you have a specific question (one at a time!)
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> then you realize that there is enough documentation available,
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> including this mailing list.
>
>
>
> I really don't see the problem here. Just do it.
Do what? How? Of course, infinite chimpanzees at infinite iMacs
or Titaniums could eventually happen to type and compile some code.
If there were information available to let folks know how to go
about it, a lot more useful applications (& "tools") would be created
a lot more quickly.
>
The problem I see with the book is that while the examples are good,
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the book simply lists code for you to type in, and it haphazardly/
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rarely describes to you what the code means. It will say something
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like "now we need to provide an initWithCoder method"..
Why is an initWithCoder method needed at that point?
What purpose does it serve?
How would the provided method be altered to do something
useful and different?
Why does it send the setDate message to itself?
What's with the [coder decodeObject] parameter?
>
well why not talk about how that gets called, etc., or list some
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of the object methods you are calling with a definition?
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>
My C is experience is limited (mostly vb/oracle/web), but after
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I understood the syntax of ObjC I spent more time looking at
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the book code, typing it in, and then cursing because there's
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no follow up!
I see very little added value up through chapter 7. The exceptions
are a couple diagrams of how some of the classes within AppKit and
Foundation might be grouped for mnemonic purposes, and a paragraph
on memory management (the latter section, however, still leaves
imprecisely defined when release is necessary; yes I've read
the articles available on the web).
I've written technical manuals; I've taught classes; I'm aware that
it's very difficult to avoid leaving out explanations of steps,
or leaving out steps entirely, simply because "of course, you
need that; everybody knows...". Everybody does not know.
Everybody does not take exactly the same approach or POV to
a programming design or task. Especially when writing a book
we need to explain every tiny little detail that anyone could
possible not know or not understand. Maybe that's it; maybe
there needs to be someone in on the collaboration who has not
been programming NeXT or OpenStep for a decade.
John G. Otto Nisus Software, Engineering
www.infoclick.com www.mathhelp.com www.nisus.com software4usa.com
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My opinions are probably not those of Nisus Software, Inc.