Re: Any new/updated Cocoa books soon?
Re: Any new/updated Cocoa books soon?
- Subject: Re: Any new/updated Cocoa books soon?
- From: Aaron Hillegass <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 00:47:20 -0500
Barnes & Noble has a 2nd edition of "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by
Aaron Hillegass listed as due out in February 2004 (and I also noticed
that Amazon removed their page for this upcoming revision).
I've pretty much finished up the second edition of "Cocoa Programming
for Mac OS X" but it won't be available until April. (Well, if you
come to the Cocoa class at the Big Nerd Ranch, March 22 - 26, you'll
get a copy.) What's changed? I've included the preface to the second
edition below.
Thanks,
Aaron Hillegass
I once studied with a wise mathematician named Soo Bong Chae. Dr. Chae
had written a few really good books, and he once told me his secret:
"After I write book, I put it away for two years. After avoiding the
book for two years, I read it and rewrite the parts that need work.
Then I publish it." The idea was a good one: by ignoring the book for
two years, he could revise it with fresh eyes.
But that's not what happened in my case.
It has, indeed, been two years since I wrote the first edition. In
that time, however, I have taught 20 classes using the book as a text.
Overall, the first edition was a good book, but far from perfect, and
where the book was weak, I have suffered. It was with great relish I
eliminated these sore spots from this edition.
During these two years, Apple has continued innovating upon the strong
base that Mac OS X created. Hundreds of tiny improvements were made,
and two large changes occured: Project Builder was replaced by Xcode,
and the controller layer was added to Cocoa. Throughout this book, you
will use Xcode, and the controller layer is covered in Chapter 6.
Also, during these years, I continued my work as a programmer. As my
clients asked for certain features to be added to their products, I
came to realize that several topics needed to be added to the book.
Besides many new "For the More Curious" sections, the second edition
has five entirely new chapters:
* Chapter 7 teaches how to add undo to their application using
NSUndoManager
* Chapter 30 demonstrates how to make an application AppleScript-able.
* Chapter 31 shows how you can use OpenGL calls within a Cocoa
application
* Chapter 32 gives the necessary steps to create a reusable framework
* Chapter 33 will get you started creating Cocoa applications on Linux
using GNUstep
The final improvement is a physical one: the second edition has a
lay-flat binding so that it can sit at your elbow as you work through
the book. Although a subtle change, I think it will make your
experience of the book and its ideas a little bit more pleasant.
I don't get to ignore this book after it has been published -- the
quality of the book has a direct influence on the quality of the
courses I teach. Is it a good book? Let me put it this way: I am
looking forward to going through it with my students a dozen times this
year. I guess that says something.
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