Cocoa programming for Mac OS X
by Aaron Hillegass · first published 2001
65% recommend32% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Tutorial-driven introduction to Objective-C, Xcode, Interface Builder and Cocoa design patterns, with clear concept flow; suits programmers who know some C and want a standard grounding in Mac development.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Provides step-by-step instructions for learning Cocoa, discussing such topics as Objective-C, controls, helper objects, archiving, Nib files and NSWindowController, and creating interface builder palettes.
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" is an extremely well written book that is great for learning Objective C through Cocoa and also does not assume you're retarded.
on “Holy crap, an Objective-C text that doesn’t assume you’re retarded” ↗There really isn't much to Objective-C. If you're learning Objective-C to do Mac development, I'd highly recommend Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass. It spends about 40-50 pages talking about Xcode and Objective-C, and it goes in depth for a lot of key Cocoa concepts in the rest of the book.
on “Ask YC: Best short text to learn Objective-C” ↗The bible is certainly Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/cocoa®_programming_for_mac®... The Apple documentation is outstanding. http://developer.apple.com/resources/ Check out ObjC and iOS podcasts. My favorite Cocoa website…
on “OS X/iOS Programming” ↗Assuming you already know a bit of C and that you like learning by tutorial I'd recommend working through "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" 3rd Ed. by Aaron Hillegass. You will get a good tutorial-based introduction to Objective C, Xcode/Interface Builder and the design patterns used to build both OSX and iPhone apps. (iPhone is not mentioned…
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best Tutorials/Resources on How to Build an IPhone App?” ↗I started out developing for the Mac with "The Objective-C Programming Language" but found it clumsy and kind of dense. In my opinion "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass (http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Programming-Mac-OS-3rd/dp/032150...) is much better in the way it introduces concepts, and flows from chapter to chapter. Well worth the investment if…
on “Apple posts free developer documentation for iBooks users” ↗…developers cookbook and just reading Apple's documentation on the subject I was working on. If you want more mac side of things then iPhone, then i can't say enough good things about Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X book.
on “How do you generate passive income?” ↗Check out Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X". Not directly iPhone related, but a good start on XCode / Cocoa / obj-C.
on “Ask HN: Cocoa Touch & iPhone Dev Step by Step Tutorials” ↗The two things that got me started were "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (3rd Edition)" by Aaron Hillegass: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/browse/book/isbn/97803215036... and iCodeBlog which has excellent tutorials for beginners: http://icodeblog.com/
on “Introductory course to iphone development” ↗Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X is what I learned from. I never learned Smalltalk, but I had programmed C beforehand. If memory serves, Cocoa Programming assumes no prior knowledge of C.
on “How to go about learning Objective-C?” ↗Reading document from Apple is the best way to start. For books, I found the following are very helpful: 1) Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (by Aaron Hillegass) 2) Cocoa Design Patterns (by Erik M. Buck and Donald A. Yacktman)
on “Ask HN: Best book to get into iOS and Mac programming?” ↗Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" is how I got started. Likely, his new books only focus on iOS development. But this book pre-dates the iPhone. I learned Mac dev from it in 2005. Highly recommended for the basics.
on “The Financial Side of Building Mac Apps” ↗Objective-C 2.0 introduced garbage collection and "properties", as well as a new enumeration syntax. The best beginning Cocoa book is "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X", found here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321503619/bignerdran... It's a great book, and a huge number of mac developers got started with it. The new version (which has Obj-C 2.0, Leopard,…
on “Where to start - programming for mobile phones” ↗The quote comes from Aaron Hillegass's book, "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X", which is a great read for anyone wanting to learn Cocoa.
on “Not being stupid” ↗In his list of "Books Most Programmers Have Actually Read", I miss a book that I'm convinced that every self-respecting Mac OS X programmer read: Aaron Hillegass' "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X"
on “Books programmers don't really read” ↗Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" is pretty much the standard. Also see: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=388538 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=431967 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=346967 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=401744
on “Ask HN: I just bought a Mac, where do I go to learn Cocoa?” ↗