Re: BigNerdRanch Cocoa Bootcamp
Re: BigNerdRanch Cocoa Bootcamp
- Subject: Re: BigNerdRanch Cocoa Bootcamp
- From: Michael Jurewitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 04:03:50 -0500
First, on the topic of is Big Nerd Ranch worth the cost: absolutely.
I recently attended the Cocoa training at the end of May in Atlanta.
I have to say it was, hands down, one of the greatest and most useful
experiences I've had as a programmer. I've had 4-5 years of
experience with C/C++ and have been dabbling in Cocoa work for about
a year, but Aaron's class really brought it all into focus. To give
you an idea of who else attended, we had everyone from a high school
student aspiring to know more about Cocoa, to programmers with years
of professional experience in Java/C++. Your programming experience
sounds sufficient for the course, too.
I think the great thing about Aaron's class is that it is extremely
well structured, very recent and topical in its choice of
technologies to learn, and is taught by a man who truly understands
the frameworks and how they are to be used. Aaron is a patient
teacher with a great attitude and willingness to help that can
accommodate novice or expert. I'm sure I sound like a walking
advertisement, but his class really is that good. I'd pay for it
again in a heartbeat.
On the topic of WWDC or BNR: that depends on what you're looking to
get out of it.
If your company has already decided that Macintosh programming is
where it wants to be and now is the time to get up to speed on how to
do it, then BNR might be a better choice. BNR will give you the
experience and tools you really need to get started programming for
the Mac. It will jump start whatever previous progress you've had
and put you in a great place to start writing Cocoa apps.
WWDC is a fantastic event to learn a tremendous amount about the
state of the platform, new technologies that are on the way, and to
get some interesting lessons from the engineers themselves on how to
use the technologies. It is not, in my limited previous experience,
somewhere to go if you're looking for a week of intensive training on
how to program for the platform. They have great hands-on sessions,
labs, and engineers available to answer questions, but it is
definitely not set up in a student-teacher format. It is much more
freeform and I think caters better to established engineers on the
platform.
So, if you're looking for training: BNR. If you're looking for more
info on the platform and upcoming technologies: WWDC.
Michael Jurewitz
email@hidden
On Jun 4, 2006, at 7:43 PM, ChrisB wrote:
I have been given the opportunity to attend my choice of the Cocoa
Bootcamp in August, or the WWDC. Being new to Cocoa and Mac
development in general I would like a bit of input on which would
be more useful. My background is with PHP and Perl, but have made
good inroads with Cocoa in the last few months of working through a
few projects. Work will foot the bill on this one, but I want to
know where the best use of the resources may be. WWDC has lots of
small sessions that look very interesting, but without the schedule
yet it hard to know and plan what I can and can't expect to hit. I
figure you all here would be the ones to know.
Thanks,
Chris
On May 16, 2006, at 3:33 PM, David Hoerl wrote:
Trygve ,
I went on my own ticket, and I was out of work at the time!.
Here's the deal. if you want to get up to speed fast, and want to
get a really good foundation, then do it. You can plunk around a
lot on your own, learning a bit at a time and slowly getting the
picture, but after an intensive week at hte camp, I went I started
going gangbusters on my application, and after 3 months got a full
time job doing Cocoa/CLI work (through their students listserver).
Before I went I printed out and read (and re-read) Apple's
Objective-C manual (what a great document!) and I got the Kocher
book too for reference (use it occasionally). [The Kocher book is
good since provides instruction on doing CLI Obj-C programs,
something I could find no online instructions for.]
After the week you will "get it" for the most part. You can also
then post "stupid" questions on the students web site without
getting flamed, and you will often get a personal response from
Aaron or one of the other instructors.
BTW, the other instructors are **really** knowledgeable on Cocoa -
you will not believe how fast they will type a solution onto your
Mac when you get help during class.
Again, if you make the decision to jump in the pool, this is the
way to do it. Do as Aaron says - work hard, then get a good nights
sleep. Don't fight the class - go with what you are told, which
often means proceeding before you completely understand the last
exercise. Trust me, it will all fall together in the end.
I had years of C experience on the old Mac, but it didn't help me
all that much get going with Cocoa. This class will push you over
the "hump" in a week, and from then on you will be capable of
going on your own.
David
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