Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X

The smart presentation style and easy-to-understand code examples help make this text an excellent resource. It also helps that Hillegass is a truly engaging writer. He first explains how legacy NeXTSTEP platform has evolved into Cocoa on the Mac OS X. Starting with short examples illustrating the actual Cocoa tools in action, the author gets you started with simple programs for a random number generator, a raise calculator and other comprehensible examples. Rather than just listing APIs and classes, the emphasis is on hands-on Cocoa development. An early standout section provides a nice tour of essential Objective-C features you'll need to learn to use Cocoa effectively.

This book covers the several dozen built-in Cocoa controls, from basic text and buttons to more advanced widgets (including lists and tables). Subsequent sections look at user interface design (using the Interface Builder to create nib files) and how to add programmatic processing behind the visual layout. Along the way, the author introduces coverage of essential Cocoa APIs for strings, arrays and dictionaries. Later chapters look at saving and loading documents (and user defaults) and how to tap the powerful graphics abilities available in Cocoa. (Besides image and basic drawing, there are short sections on PDF support and printing.)

More advanced user interface features get their due by the end of the book, including cutting and pasting data through the Cocoa pasteboard and also adding drag-and-drop support. Final sections look at creating new controls for use with the Interface Builder palette, and, briefly, how to use Java with Cocoa (an option that the author doesn't necessarily recommend). Throughout this text, the author provides more advanced, challenging problems at the end of each chapter for the "more curious" reader. This approach helps that beginners will not get lost in the details of Cocoa development, but will give the more advanced reader something more to do.

While there a comparably fewer books on Mac OS X compared to other platforms, readers are lucky to have this one available. Anyone who wants to get onboard with Cocoa development will be well served by this title. It's a fine tutorial that earns high marks for its approachable, clear examples and an excellent presentation by an author who knows his stuff and, better still, knows how to teach it to others. --Richard Dragan

The book is written for programmers who already know C++ or Java... I don't. (Although I have about 20 years experience in programing with BASIC, FORTRAN, S/360 Assembler, COBOL, REXX, ... I'm new to OOP.) Nevertheless, I found the book and example projects easy to follow and understand. The challenges (Aaron's term for what others might call exercises) are often challenging... but Aaron makes no bones about it: learning a new programming language can be hard. (Even for those with degrees in astrophysics from CalTech... read Chapter 1.)

The book is well supported by a web page at Big Nerd Ranch, with errata, solutions to those challenges, etc. (Even better, the BNR web site has some downloadable example projects and full-blown open-source Cocoa applications, such as BigShow, an XML-based MS PowerPoint alternative.)

All in all, it is inspirational. It makes me wish I was a professional programmer again. Well, just maybe...


Long awaited teaching reference on Cocoa programming.   February 2, 2002
mark@hoggatt.co.uk (West Sussex, UK)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Cocoa and MacOS X deserves to be out there as a development environment of choice to the discerning programmer and user. The biggest obstacle is Apple's own technical documentation, bless them! It is dry and uninviting, just the thing to turn new developers away from such an elegant and advanced operating system.

Now, at last, we have a text book that can reverse the tide. Aaron Hillegass brings the skill of the teacher to this subject. He teaches Cocoa programmers at the "Big Nerd Ranch" in the States, but don't let that discourage you!

The author knows how to put ideas across and at what point to bring in new topics. Tricky topics such as the retain and release mechanism, normally baffling to those new to Objective-C, are revealed as the easy topic they are.

This book for the first time brings out the true purpose of Cocoa, that is to make putting programs together easy, so that you can concentrate on your program, and not have to worry about ordinary housekeeping.

I think this will become the definitive work, that evey aspiring Cocoa programmer will need to read.


Excellent Learning Resource for keen MacOS developers!   January 28, 2002
afonso@mac.com (London)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

As a student currently finishing a MSc in Computer Science and dreaming on someday working for Apple, I dived into Cocoa as soon as MacOS X came out officialy. From all the books out there in Cocoa Programming, this has been by far the best. It is written in an extremely familiar tone, and as long as you already have experience in C, or better yet C++, you'll be happy to be developing Cocoa applications easily.

I am really excited about such a powerful set of frameworks, but with the lack of documentation from Apple it is really necessary to have a good book such as this one by hand.

Great stuff really! Overall, best book in Cocoa programming! BUY IT NOW! :)


A programming book that doesn't put you to sleep   November 27, 2003
Tas Frangoullides
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I've just finished reading "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" and have to say its amongst the best programming books I've ever read. It's aimed at people with C or Java experience who are new to objective C and Cocoa. The author demonstrates his skills as a teacher by delivering information in a progressive and easily digested manner. He begins by introducing the language and tools with a basic random number generator application and then builds on this with a number of tutorial applications. Topics covered include localisation, custom views, mouse and key events, fonts, images, printing, cut and paste, drag and drop, timers, sheets, printing, and creating your own Interface Builder Palates and controls. Cocoa is vast but this serves as an excellent starting block, covering the essentials and tasters required to progress deeper. Its very easy and enjoyable to read with challenges at the end of each chapter to help solidify your understanding. I read it from cover to cover which is unusual for me with a programming book.

I've been using OS X 10.3 which has had changes to the development tools since the book was written For example Project Builder is now called XCode, has code completion facilities and some of the menus have moved. However this didn't prove to be a problem and differences were rather obvious.

Can't really recommend it any higher!


Not as scary as I thought.   July 9, 2008
Mrs. A. C. Penny (bordeaux)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I've had a project on the back burner for some time that required me to get to grips with Cocoa: no ifs, no buts. My timing wasn't ideal as XCode had gone from version 2 to version 3 without the documentation being updated, so I've been gingerly playing with Cocoa for about 5 months, but not really getting very far owing to the hurdles presented by the many interface changes.

Starting this book was nothing less than a revelation. I'm up to p77 of 418 pages and am surprised how quickly I'm getting to grips with tricky objective-c syntax (although it's really not too bad once you stop being scared of square brackets) and working with Interface Builder. The trickiest subject is memory management, and I must say I was rocking backwards and forwards gibbering 'this is hard, I'm not stupid' and clutching tightly to my degree certificate as Aaron recommends, but even this rather murky subject is beginning to sink in.

His writing style is very fluent and his many years of experience teaching people this technology is evident from the content. I'd shy away from saying this is a book for beginners, but if you've got a smattering of programming experience (PHP and a spot of Ruby is my background) and want to write good programs for the Rolls Royces of home computing, then this book has got to be at the top of your shopping list (assuming you've already bought a Mac that is! ).