Please note that there is now an iPhone 3 edition of this title available! Are you a programmer looking for a new challenge? Does the thought of building your very own iPhone app make your heart race and your pulse quicken? If so, then Beginning iPhone Development is just the book for you. Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, Beginning iPhone Development offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone and iPod Touch programming. The book starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and installing Apple's free iPhone SDK, then stepping you though the creation of your first simple iPhone application. You'll move on from there, mastering all the iPhone interface elements that you've come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, sliders, etc. You'll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. You'll master the art of table-building and learn how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You'll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone's built-in database management system. You'll learn how to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES. You'll add MultiTouch Gestural Support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the Camera, Photo Library, and Accelerometer. You'll master application preferences, learn how to localize your apps into other languages, and so much more. Apple's iPhone SDK, this book, and your imagination are all you'll need to start building your very own best-selling iPhone applications. You can discover more about this book, download source code, and find support forums at the book's companion site: www.iphonedevbook.com Reviews "People ask me again and again about how to get started in iPhone development, but I never had a very good answer for them until now. Dave and Jeff's book starts at the beginning in clear English, making sure you understand the fundamentals with many large illustrations. From there, they progress into key concepts such as the MVC pattern and ImageBuilder fundamentals. Additionally, I find myself flipping back to it as a reference guide—the plethora of code samples make it a must-have." —Steve Demeter, Creator of "Trism" and owner of Demiforce LLC "Beginning iPhone Development delivers a clear picture of the entire development process from registering as an iPhone developer through creation of complete applications. There is a wealth of examples illustrating each feature of the iPhone. The authors did an excellent job of demonstrating "best practice" coding methodology throughout the book. You would be hard pressed to find a better guide to creating software for the iPhone." —Aaron Basil, iDev2.com "Dave Mark has always been the king of Mac programming authors, and now he's proven to be the reigning king for books on iPhone development! "Beginning iPhone Development is the definitive guide for iPhone development, and anyone aspiring to develop for the iPhone should get this invaluable reference." —Brian Greenstone, President & CEO, Pangea Software, Inc. "Jeff and Dave have done an exceptional job exploring the iPhone SDK. This book is far and away the single best resource for iPhone SDK development. Developers will latch on to this book and find it useful as they create the next great iPhone application. If you're a developer with an interest in this amazing new platform, this is a must buy." —Chris Stewart, Founder, iPhoneDevSDK.com "If you're planning on coding for the iPhone, start here. Dave and Jeff know their stuff and also know how to explain it. I was amazed how much stuff they cover, from Hello World through analyzing user gestures. Not only do they cover the fun stuff like playing with the camera, they cover real-world development issues like localization. I learned a huge amount from them" —Mark Dalrymple, Co-founder, CocoaHeads, and Principal Author, Advanced Mac OS X Programming "Starting with an overview of the technology, how to approach the device, the authors lead us straight into the heart of iPhone development. As you progress, you'll learn more about various layout engines and view managers, as well as the more meaty topics like accelerometer and GPS APIs. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in getting started quickly and efficiently with iPhone development!" —Chris Pelsor, Manager, Tarantell:Hybrid "All in all I was very surprised and pleased with the book. I've had the fortune of reading many technical books, and few do a great job of walking someone through the basics without making them feel like a dolt. It felt like every time I was stuck or unsure there was a tip, hint or paragraph which explained what was going on." —Cory Foy, at Slashdot.org Summary of Contents - Welcome to the Jungle
- Appeasing the Tiki Gods
- Handling Basic Interaction
- More User Interface Fun
- Autorotation and Autosizing
- Multiview Applications
- Tab Bars and Pickers
- Introduction to Table Views
- Navigation Controllers and Table Views
- Application Settings and User Defaults
- Basic Data Persistence
- Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
- Taps, Touches, and Gestures
- Where Am I? Finding Your Way with Core Location
- Whee!
- iPhone Camera and Photo Library
- Application Localization
- Where to Next?
About the Apress Beginning Series The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory! |
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 Fantastic reading!! Excellent work!! |
| Review Date: December 1, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jonathan M. Davis, Scottsdale, AZ USA |
When this book arrived, and I saw the book cover, I knew I got something different. Not a cookie-cutter book but an original piece of work where somebody really intended to teach something.
I just got this book a few days ago and with this 4-day Thanksgiving weekend and living alone I have been having a blast focusing just on this book. I haven't read through it all yet, still just a quarter of the way through, but I'm not trying to cram. This book does exactly what I want a book to do (as opposed to an online reference resource): stop and talk about every little thing that is really useful to know in the workflow of applications programming on an iPhone.
These guys know how to write. They don't leave the reader with presumptuous word choice and leave the reader hanging; every time they say something it's like they read the mind of the reader, "Now you might be wondering, what about... or why not do ... Well, let's talk about that." Nearly every corner is covered, and where I still have questions it's usually not directly related to the topic, i.e. I have an Obj-C question. Even then, after I return from surfing the web for answers, I return to the book and turn the page and the book says, "You should read up on this stuff at [URL]"... I kid you not, this book had me floored.
Looking towards the latter pages of the book, I can't help but be astounded, thinking, wow, I get to learn about THAT? And in the same style of learning that I've been enjoying so far? This is great!
There are very few errors, mostly just little things that the reader can spot just by paying attention. There are plenty of enough illustrations and tips to keep the reader engaged and constantly learning not just the basics but how to get comfortable in the workflow of iPhone development.
My only disappointment is that the book assumes knowledge of Obj-C, but fortunately it comes with plenty of URLs and references to complete those prerequisites as well, and really, to discuss Obj-C in detail, beyond the rather brief coverage-as-we-go that is indeed in this book, would have been beyond the scope of the book so that's fine.
There's just nothing I can say bad about this book, and everything good. It is by far the funnest technical book I've owned and cracked open in months, if not years.
By the way, coming from a C# background (and Java and VB5/6 before that), lightweight programming of the iPhone is EASY!! It's different, but it's easy, particularly compared to C++ programming which I've had a number of false starts. For me, if I can go from VBScript to VB6 to Java to C#, I can go from C# to Obj-C. Also, the workflow of Xcode + Interface Builder is somewhat analogous to the workflow of Visual Studio + Expression Blend 2 for WPF programming, if indeed event handlers would have been set up in the Blend designer in a drag-and-drop way. I must also add, learning how to develop software in Xcode forces the developer to learn MVC. I don't know why people who are used to Visual Studio programming dislike the MVC-ness of Xcode programming, but I love the change of workflow, and I think there is much to take back with me when I return to C# development. |
One of the BEST Programming Books EVER!
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| Review Date: December 28, 2008 |
| Reviewer: zacware, New Jersey |
| This book is one of the best programming books ever written!!!!! Want to know how good this book is? Over the holidays, my 12 year old was begging me to help him learn iPhone programming since he saw me release my first few apps and make a few dollars on it. He has never done any programming before. I told him to first read the first 100 pages of Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan so he understood the basics of programming and then I gave him this book to learn about programming the iPhone. By the end of the weekend, he had written his first basic iPhone app. I was so amazed I am now going through the book page by page myself, and this 25 year veteran of computer programming is also learning a lot. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and the switch from someone used to doing strictly procedural assembly language and C programming to something like the iPhone is tough, but this book has shed a whole new light on how to program for the iPhone. Simply put, it's fantastic. |
Strong foundation on which to build your Cocoa Touch knowledgebase
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| Review Date: November 26, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Aaron H. Miller, Mountain View, CA USA |
In keeping with Dave Mark's excellent track record for introductory Mac development books (referring to his Learn C on the Mac classic) and Jeff LaMarche's obvious talents, this book is THE book for those new (and really, who isn't?) to iPhone Development.
I'll start by saying that relative to the Apple samples, the authors are heavily into Interface Builder usage, which is good to force separation of your Views from your Controller logic, but a challenge when you fumble hooking up an outlet and things don't work as you expect. Understanding how IB outlets & actions interact with source code is different than other programming most of us not from a NextStep heritage are used to. That is to say, for most programmers, debugging and changing behavior in source code is a much more familiar method to follow than trying to fix a NIB file. Not necessarily a better one mind you, but a significantly different one that'll take some getting used to.
That said, from my own brief experience, it seems starting off with a strong fundamental understanding of Apple-flavored MVC from this book, enforced via Interface Builder views and managed via controller source code, is preferable to trying to structure it correctly just in source code (as Apple usually shows it).
With respect to IB, the authors do a great job covering the common mistakes we all make and what you should do to resolve them (i.e. in Chap 6 they mention that if you don't see the proper action popup, you probably control-dragged from the wrong IB component. Nice touch.)
A minor nit, when I read the chapter on autorotation, I didn't find mention of the very handy "autoresizingMask" property of a view (UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleHeight | UIViewAutoresizingFlexibleWidth), which handles the changing sizes of a view for you. They mention it in passing, but it's such a nicely done feature that more people should use, it might deserve a project sample. Bonus: they explain why Apple discourages use of the "upside-down portrait" mode, which is good to know.
The authors wisely emphasize the importance of TableViews, which are so central to so many iPhone app interfaces for a reason. I've skimmed those chapters (8 & 9) and they're the best available anywhere on explaining tables and how they interact with Navigation Controllers and subviews. I'm really looking forward to digging into them. My initial concerns that like a compelling preview to a bad movie (I'm looking at you Zohan) I was worried that Chapter 3 [which Apress has available on their website, google for it if you're looking for a representative sample] would be the best in the book. Chapters 6-9 put those fears to rest.
The remaining chapter coverage is conducive to arming you with the basics to create a solid, stable, fully-featured iPhone/iPod Touch application that combined with your own creativity and hard-work, you'd be proud to display in the App Store.
So, in sum, this is the book to get right now if you're just starting out on developing Cocoa Touch apps. Even after I've learned the basics, I can see myself referring back to this book for refreshers. Thanks Dave & Jeff! |
iphone omnipotence (iO)
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| Review Date: January 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: John McSwain, Atlanta, GA |
Personally, I'm happy with what this book provides in the form of Objective C examples and fundamentals for creating iPhone native applications with Xcode and Interface Builder. The learning pattern of the book goes like this: write some code, run some code, and explain some code. This works well for most people with experience in application development.
If / when you get this book, however, do not put too much pressure on it to explain to you every possible concept there is to know about Objective C, patterns, explicit syntax, etc. It is more or less a guide for learning the fundamental abstract concepts of iPhone applications using concrete Objective C code examples.
Many reviewers have stated that this is not a beginners book and it may not be for people who have never been exposed to Objective C. This book alone may not get you to iphone omnipotence (iO) and you shouldn't expect it to by default, but seriously consider buying this book and one other Cocoa / Objective C book such as Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) in order to gain mastery of the subject matter. |
From 0 to Developing in a week
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| Review Date: January 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Bowden, Los Angeles |
I cannot say enough good things about this book.
I'm a developer for a large agency in Los Angeles and recently many of our clients have been inquiring about developing iPhone apps. Unfortunately, our only iPhone devs are in our NY office, so it makes it a little difficult.
Since I've been using macs forever and I've been interested in developing for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform since the SDK was announced, I figured this was as good a time as any to take on learning the Cocoa Touch platform/framework.
I have a decent amount of programming experience, but it's mostly in PHP/Java/AS3/JS/ETC and Objective-C looks like a foreign language compared to those others. I initially read the Apple docs and training materials (which are great btw), but they didn't really start at square 1, which is what I needed. So then I downloaded some video training courses and they were pretty good, but they still left me with more questions than answers.
Then, I bought this book.
It is fantastic. As someone who graduated with degrees in both English and Web Development, I must say I appreciated this book on many levels. It is easy to read, well-indexed and perfectly structured. The authors use every lesson to build on the last one, while still ingraining into you what you learned in the last lesson instead of assuming that by doing it once, you have it mastered.
Beyond the structure of the book, I find the breadth of topics covered to be its greatest asset. It teaches you about almost everything you would need to know about developing an iPhone application. From basic layouts to multiple views and camera integration. It does all this and it does so in an easily understandable manner.
I could go on and on, but I think it can all be best encapsulated in one sentence: I received this book on a Tuesday and by the end of Sunday, I was developing an application for a client and having far less difficulty than I ever would've imagined.
If you are interested in developing for the iPhone, this is the book you need. |
Excellent Book for Beginning iPhone/iPod Touch developers.
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| Review Date: March 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ian J. Howle, Seattle, WA USA |
| This book was easy to follow and went into depth on the key points of iPhone and iPod Touch development. It's important to already have a knowledge of Cocoa programming on Mac OS X before delving into this. |
Best computer language book I have ever read...period.
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| Review Date: November 20, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Aaron Berk, |
Beginning iPhone Development is without a doubt the easiest to read computer language book I've ever read and I've read a lot. I am absolutely flying through the chapters and understand every line of code, mostly due to the style of writing.
This book, even in the beginning chapters, not only verified the things I had to learn on my own with the iPhone SDK early on, but gave me the theory and a clear understanding how everything actually works. I so wish I had this book early on. I would have saved so much time and frustration, but now, it will only make my apps that much more solid and easy to build. Thank you!! |
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