Programming in Objective-C (Developer's Library) Reviews

• If only there were more programming books like this one...

  
  By A99QZ32EJV176 on 2004-07-28
  This book is the most lucid book on programming I have ever read. Having a little (self-taught) experience in C, this book was recommended to me as a good foundation before trying to learn Cocoa for programming on Max OS X. I fully expected to be confronted with the sort of doorstopper that I would never finish, as has been the case with several C++ books; instead, I found a straightforward, uncluttered guide, written by somebody with a genuine talent for teaching.
  
  The author takes the approach of not trying to teach you C first, and this has two advantages: first, if you have no C experience, you get started immediately learning Objective-C, so you don't get taught one thing only to be told to forget it later; second, if you do have some C experience, you are thrown into object-oriented programming right from the start. The explanations are consistently concise but clear, and I found myself getting through a chapter or two every night after work and feeling that I was learning something significant on every page. I read someone describe it elsewhere as "Teach Yourself Objective-C in 21 Days," except that this book really could live up to such a title. I wholeheartedly agree - it took me only three weeks to work through the whole book, including nearly all of the exercises. If, like me, you have seen terms such as "polymorphism", "inheritance", "instance method" and "subclassing" bandied around only to stare at them in mute incomprehension, this book is a revelation. The author introduces all such major concepts very gently - in fact they seem to creep up on you, so that by the time you are presented with the proper terminology you either already know what it means or find yourself exclaiming - as I did - "Oh, so that's all polymorphism is!"
  
  My only gripe - and it is very minor - is that the explanations of bitwise operators and bitfields are near incomprehensible to anybody who doesn't have a programming background (or rather, they are explained well, but there is no indication of when you would ever use them), and the author does occasionally (though rarely) seem to assume that the reader has a solid maths background (when there are those of us out there from humanities and arts backgrounds who want to learn to program, too). These topics take up little more than several paragraphs of the 500 or so pages, though, so if you're a novice, don't let them daunt you as they are the exception rather than the rule.
  
  One thing I appreciated about this book was that full code is provided for 99% of the examples - you are never left with an example that won't compile because the author assumed you could guess the rest yourself. Moreover, whilst the examples and exercises do develop on code from previous chapters - in particular, you will develop a Calculator, Fraction, and Rectangle class in the first part of the book, and AddressCard and AddressBook classes in the second part - the author wisely avoids the build-one-big-program approach that some books adopt. This keeps things fresh and lively - you have to type in different examples, meaning you become familiar with the language through repetition, but at the same time you are doing different things in the examples themselves. Moreover the exercises at the end of each chapter are well judged - you are forced to think and look back through the book to recap on what you have learned, and they are difficult without being too difficult. (Don't skip them!)
  
  In the second part of the book, the author moves on to the Foundation framework, which forms half of Cocoa (Cocoa also uses the AppKit for creating GUI's). You will learn how to use NSString, NSArray, NSDictionary (and their mutable counterparts) and a lot more. It builds on everything you've learned in Part One and provides a bridge between the basics of Objective-C and moving on to Cocoa. I expect that this part of the book especially will become dog-eared very quickly. To sum up, this book took me from knowing nothing about Ojbective-C to feeling as though I could write all the background code for the app I have in mind (ie. everything except the GUI). I am now just hoping that Hillegass's book on Cocoa is half as good.
  
  A word of advice: I urge anybody who buys this book to print off the errata on the author's website (the address is given in the book), as there are a few minor errors that might stump you if you don't. Also, if you use Xcode instead of the command-line tools, you will need to delete the contents of the automatically-generated ..._Prefix.pch file as well as the #import line at the top of main.m each time you start a project (the book only specifies the latter). The prefix file caused me some headaches in one of the later chapters.
  
  A lot of people on various forums say that this is the only book from which to learn Objective-C, and I can see why. In short, if you are reading this review you are probably thinking about learning Objective-C, either for its own sake or as groundwork for moving on to Cocoa. Which means that if you are reading this review, you should buy this book.
  
  

• Good for self-education or for a training course

  
  By A12TLMWLMYS2RT on 2004-01-11
  While I am a veteran C programmer and trainer, I had never had the time to investigate Objective-C. Even though I had encountered many references to it over the years, and had a few people tell me I needed to check it out, I just never got around to looking at it. Part of the reason was that I never was able to find a book that I really wanted to read, until now.
  This book takes you from the start, but wastes little time in stepping through the fundamentals of the language. If you do not know C, it will bring you up to speed quickly. If you are experienced in C, but not in object-oriented programming, then you can easily skim through the introductory material to extract the points of interest. For those who have a higher level of experience, there is an extensive treatment of some of the foundation framework set classes. A small set of exercises is at the end of each chapter, so it could be used as a textbook.
  A good solid introduction to a version of C that is object-oriented and that has some syntactical features different from standard K & R C, this book will serve you well if your interest is either self-education or using it as a textbook.
  
  

• good prequel to all the cocoa books

  
  By on 2004-05-17
  I suggest reading this book as a prelude to a book on programming using Cocoa and objective C. I think an especially good match is to read this book (or even the 1st half of it) and then start in with Hillegass' book, then possibly supplement that with "Cocoa Programming" by Anguish, et al. The main strength of Kochan's book is that he teaches Objective C, just Objective C, and that the only tool you need to confront is the commandline. This is much simpler than cranking up Xcode and Interface builder to tackle full-blown Mac Cocoa applications.

  My only gripe with this book is the use of "free" rather than retain/release for memory management. This is completely foreign to how things work in Cocoa, and I think it was a mistake to do it this, since you'll just learn to do it differently once you move on to Cocoa, and the point of this book, for me at least, was to get an Objective C grounding for Cocoa. SInce the logical role for this book is to get beginners ready for Cocoa, I think the memory management should have followed standard Cocoa procedures.

  Despite this gripe, this is a very useful book for starting in with Objective C and a very reasonable introduction to object oriented programming.
  
  

• Finally!!! a book that teaches how to write Objective-C

  
  By A1OQB768GFSEFJ on 2004-01-07
  Finally!!!Finally a book that teaches how to write Objective-C programs without knowing C or having to learn Cocoa. I've been waiting for a book like this for a long time. Kochan explains all of the concepts of Objective-C and OOP so clearly using lots of examples. The second part of the book, which covers the Foundation Framework justifies the price of the book alone. I particularly liked the chapter on memory management, which clearly explains the autorelease pool and how it works. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to learn how to write programs in Objective-C, even if you already know C. Now I'm ready to learn how to write Cocoa programs!
  
  

• A good book, but only for a few select people

  
  By A3RNFSPYRO8IGR on 2006-08-29
  This book is well written and easy to follow. It is a great book if you fit into one of the following categories.
  
  Programming novice (From a novice review: Chapter 3, Classes, Objects, and Methods, pretty much cleared up all the confusion I've ever had about object oriented programming.")
  Crusty veteran C developer (From a crusty review: "A vetran[sic] C++ programmer, I found this book to be a quick way to come up to speed on Objective-C")
  Experienced, but clueless programmer (Clueless review: instead of learning procedures, as you would with C\C++, you learn about objects and how to use those objects in a productive way.)
  
  If you are an experienced OO developer in a language other than Objective-C, you will quickly become frustrated with the pace and tedium of this book. I do not fault the author in this respect. He wrote a good book that applies to a majority of the possible readership.
  
  The author also positions this book as a book for those without prior knowledge of C.
  
  " Readers can also learn the concepts of object-oriented programming without having to first learn all of the intricacies of the underlying procedural language (C)."
  
  However, he is doing you, and your future coworkers a great disservice by maintaining this fantasy. Without prior knowledge of C, you will probably be a pretty awful Objective-C developer.
  
  
• Great Book
  By A2MV0OIL9BOQF8 on 2004-11-07
  Stephen Kochan books are always clear and concise and deliver all the material you need to know in a straight forward way. While I have been programming in ObjectiveC for since 1990, I bought this book to add to my library. To my surprise I realized that I also own a very worn 1988's copy of Programming in C.
  
  One interesting twist on this book, is that it doesn't presume that you know how to program in C so it covers the C underpinnings of the language.
  
  
• Solid book if you know at least some programming
  By A1BU02SSZU6ZOT on 2004-08-28
  The introduction states (page 2): This book does not assume much, if any, previous programming experience. In fact, if you're a novice programmer, you should be able to learn Objective-C as your first programming language from this text.
  
  These sentences are utterly incorrect. Bitwise operations and non decimal math (octal and hexadecimal), in particular, are not explained well. If you know these terms, you will be able to muddle through however. I took away no stars for this issue.
  
  The book is chock full of errors that unfortunately seems typical of so many technical books published currently. (Be sure to get the errata.) Some errors are easily understood typos, while others are confusing. I took one star away for these errors.
  
  Overall, the book has helped me learn Objective-C.
  
  
• Avoid if (1) you know C, or (2) you want something thoughtful!
  By A38JHLQ04664JL on 2006-02-03
  In general, this gets high marks from most reviewers, but I did not like it. I think the reason is that I have been a fairly competent C programmer for many years. So half the book was telling me things I already knew (what is a++ etc). Even worse, the other half had an elementary viewpoint. It was intended to help you rote learn mindlessly.
  As I read about the language features I did not know, many obvious questions occurred (Why on earth would anyone use this apparently kludgy and inefficient NSNumber class? How does init differ from a C++ constructor?). But there was no intelligent discussion of such issues, you were left to figure it out for yourself.
  There were also too many minor typos in the code examples.
  
  
• A Very Clear, Understandable Guide
  By A14JU4ZBGGMR9X on 2005-06-18
  I am a Visual Basic developer by trade but I switched to using a Mac at home a while ago. As a programmer I wanted to start writing applications for my Mac and I wanted to use Apple's own development tools. However, having no knowledge of C or C++ seemed to be a major stumbling block since most Objective-C or Cocoa books assume existing knowledge. Stephen is gracious enough to write his book for those of use who do not and his book is all the better for it. The chapters are presented in manageable blocks so that it is easy to sit down and work through an entire chapter without being shut away for hours and hours and everything is clearly laid out and explained in enough detail to be informative whilst not dumbing everything down excessively.
  
  My only gripe, which is not really Stephen's fault, is that I think that I will also need a dedicated Cocoa book to take things further but, as a guide to Objective-C I really cannot recommend this book highly enough.
  
  
• Excellent book for aspring programmers with no C experience
  By A18V1NAXPQRIJS on 2005-11-03
  New Mac computers come with a full suite of excellent objective-c programming tools called Xcode. This book is a great way for inexperienced programmers to learn ObjC without feeling overwhelmed. When I first decided I wanted to take up programming for the Mac, I was concerned that I would feel overwhelmed with arcane terminlogy and confusing explanations. I was very gratified to start into this book with no programming experience other than old school apple //c Basic and be able to write simple programs right from the start. That instills a sense of confidence that I think is essential to success in learning. The author makes sure that you understand what each line of code is for and you never feel like you're typing something that you don't understand.
  
  I purchased this book as a bundle with "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass. I actually cracked that book first and successfully programmed my first example program. However in chapter 3 he writes "..this chapter assumes that you already know a little C and something about objects..". Since I have no C experience at all and only know about objects as "things", I put that book down and started with "Programming in Objective-C." I'm glad I did. This book focuses more on learning objective-C and touches only a little bit on how to use Xcode. Once I get further along I'm sure that the Hillegass book will be an excellent book for me to learn from.
  
  If you're looking for 2 books to get you started in programming Objective-C, I would highly recommend the 2 book bundle.
  
  
• Adding to the dogpile - this is where to start if you want to learn ObjC or Cocoa
  By A3EBC2EU1XNSEU on 2005-09-22
  Here was my post to the cocoa-dev mailing list (slightly updated as it's a year old):
  
  FROM : Steven Harms
  DATE : Thu Jul 29 01:03:34 2004
  
  ...[W]e are both in the early stages of learning Cocoa and would like to apply our experiences in other languages to make learning Cocoa easy.
  
  Part of the heuristic of 'how to learn' starts with an editor, a
  compiler, and "here is how you declare a variable" - we then move toconditionals, loops, objects etc. Without that education I felt very naked in the O'Reilly books.
  
  I read the first 15 chapters or so of Stephen Kochan's _Programming in Objective-C_ by SAMS press. I am now going through Hillegass' book and am very pleased (outside of the mail i sent moments ago!).
  
  Kochan's book gives enough familiarity in the basics to demystify a lot of the Cocoa work -- Hillegass does a very good job in building up the basics. I would recommend this path to the absolute beginner.
  
  Steven
  
  ....
  
  I stand by this post in a very serious way. I really love ObjC just for itself. I'm thinking about teaching my girlfriend how to program, and I'm definitely thinking about using Objective C because it is regular, sensible, modular, OO, and a lot of fun.
  
  It's amazing just how cool ObjC is. It's really quite too bad that most of the Cocoa books (which is why you're really looking at this book, isn't it?) just kinda slap things around loosley with respect to nailing down the essentials of the Objective C language.
  
  I guess they figure they've got to get us to Interface Builder quickly or else our TV-eroded sense of instant gratification kicks in and turns their book into a doorstop (if that's the case, do you /really/ have any business being a programmer?)
  
  In any case, the only ORA press book that does anything considerable with the ObjC foundation is Davidson's book but then the example is fairly trivial (a CD database) and some of the fundamental primitives of the programming language are not even broached.
  
  This foundation is where Kochan excels. Contrary to other reviewers I love that he teaches from a text editor + compiler approach. I think that the Xtools that apple provides makes writing Cocoa a bit *too* easy. As a result I don't really understand what I'm doing. Much like a child who has learned a series of signs and expressions and can utter them, the mental clay has not been marked with the meaning of those symbols.
  
  If you want to learn Cocoa, I still say put away XTools and ORA press (as good as they are at most other things). Start with Kochan, (vim|emacs), and gcc and get your basics down. From there you'll have an excellent foundation and won't be confused / irritated / baffled by "unexplained magic" that appears in other cocoa books.
  
  
• Great book for the novice programmer
  By A1BMAJSOUAHGTB on 2006-03-30
  I was given this book as a birthday gift and having a little experience in computer programming with languages like Pascal, C#, C and C++ and a little bit of BASIC. I have always wanted to build my own programs using the latest and greatest programming languages but I didn't know where to begin.
  
  I was trying to do some of the online tutorials and reading books on C\C++ but the author of the book or tutorial assumed that the person learning the language had prior knowledge of the language, which I had none.
  
  I wanted a language that was object-oriented and Objective-C fit the bill, because instead of learning procedures, as you would with C\C++, you learn about objects and how to use those objects in a productive way.
  
  If you want to learn about object-oriented programming, then buy this book then go and read Apple's own book on Objective-C. I am in part 2, Chapter 15, page 315 of the book and have learned a lot since I got the book.
  
  The examples and exercises in the book are very easy to do and understand so you're not sitting at the computer scratching your head trying to figure out what the author is trying to tell you, try to find that in any other book on programming languages.
  
  I find it absolutely amazing how much information can be learned from this book. All I can say to the author is thank you so much for making computer programming fun.
  
  
• Same as it ever was...
  By A2M7FKN91GVEX1 on 2006-01-12
  I learned C using Mr. Kochans' "Programming in C" book and I left yet another glowing review under that one a year ago. This one is not quite as easy to follow, but the concepts themselves aren't as easy as C was, so I can't fault the author. If I had not read his Objective-C book before starting into the Hillegass book, I would have been MUCH more frustrated trying to understand Cocoa. In the beginning of the Hillegass book he had me clicking and dragging stuff in the Interface Builder, doing his best to explain the concepts to me (somewhat unsuccessfully). Then, when he has you look at the actual code that was generated by all of the clicking-and-dragging, the proverbial light bulb came on... I said to myself "Stephen explained all of this in his book".
  
  Reading just the first half of this book will help you understand ANY Cocoa book better.
  
  
  
• At last! At Last!
  By A1IH4V8EEHZLGJ on 2004-11-18
  A book on programming Objective C that doesn't require you to know C first! This one is long overdue. It's well organized. It's very clear and it's loaded with sample code you can enter as you learn. Here's the important thing, it teaches you how to write code in Objective C while avoiding the construction of interfaces. As odd as that may seem, this really does make life simpler in the beginning. What is really nice is that it shows you how do this while using X-Tools or Project Builder editors so you do not have to be a "command-line cowboy" to program the Mac.
  
  Great stuff!
  
  
• Wow!
  By A2XSQ1G3DV7MJ2 on 2006-08-15
  Coming from a PHP background, this book was a perfect and thorough introduction to Objective-C. This is a great book for starters, and especially for people who are coming from a background in a non object-oriented language. After reading this book, I feel confident enough to write a fairly complex and powerful program that takes advantage of Objective-C and NextStep features (for the command line - you'll need to learn Cocoa for GUIs). In addition, there is a handy appendix that recommends a few invaluable books that will bring you further to becoming a full-fledged Cocoa programmer.
  
  As a recommendation to all who would like to learn C-type languages (or any programming language) - you may first want to learn about the way in which computers store data (bits, bytes, words). Knowing this beforehand has helped me greatly to grasp the concepts of pointers and memory management (independant of any book on C).
  
  
• Be sure to see the publication date
  By A137I3X6YH55EN on 2008-03-13
  First, I just got the book and haven't read through it much. Please see the other reviews for info about the contents. I just want to point out to people who are considering this book as a basis for iPhone development to be wary of the publication date. The book is quite old. It does not cover Objective-C 2.0 (used for iPhone software). That's not a big deal (there aren't too many differences between 2.0 and previous versions of the language, that I know about anyway). However, I was a bit concerned that the book starts off talking about Apple's "project builder" on the Mac and mentions that a new program, "XCODE" is being written to replace it. Well, XCODE is up to version 3.0 these days. So the book is missing a *lot* of information that would be handy for someone like myself who is coming at this from a PC programming background and knows *nothing* about Mac/Objective-C development.
  
  Again, I want to emphasize that I'm not in a position to comment about how well the book covers the Objective-C language and the applicability of this book to iPhone development. I would just point out that if you're in the same position I'm in, it might be worthwhile to consider waiting for a revision or looking into other sources.
  
  Having said that, the Apple documentation on the Objective-C language is absolutely terrible. So maybe the combination of this book and Apple's documentation will work. That remains to be seen.
  
  
• Wow
  By AJ32F2POR3GP6 on 2005-10-04
  This is THE place to start learning to program for OSX. Other books are more comprehensive, and deal w/ the GUI interface integration, and they are important too. However, if you want to learn how to program for the Mac, don't get a C book, just get this one. Then you will be ready to learn from other "Cocoa" books. I am just beginning to teach myself Cocoa (and programming in general), and I was pretty lost w/ the whole thing until I got this book. I can't reiterate it enough-- This is THE place to start for the novice programmer interested in programming Cocoa.
  
  As far as the book itself goes. It is very well written, examples are clear, and the author does not assume you've mastered a concept simply because he mentioned it in a previous chapter (a problem w/ many of the other intro books out there). The pacing seems appropriate, and the examples are clear. Another reviewer mentioned the bit operation section as being difficult, and I also didn't really get it myself. However, the good news is that you don't use these operations in Cocoa except in very rare circumstances, so as a novice, you can just ignore that stuff. If you bought any of the other intro to Cocoa books and gave up, buy this, and you'll be able to understand the others better.
  
  
• Great intro to OOP and Obj-C
  By A29VZO1K6B8ZB0 on 2005-07-20
  Chapter 3, “Classes, Objects, and Methods,” pretty much cleared up all the confusion I've ever had about object oriented programming. I can’t believe how simple it is to understand once I got over the mental hurdle of object-class-inheritance-method OOP stuff. Actually, it quite reminds me of something one of my ECE 264 instructors tried to teach: separating the interface from the implementation. In this case we were building a library of functions to deal with complex numbers. In OOP parlance, we would have defined a ComplexNumber class, defined its methods, and implemented the methods available to the class.Anyhowways, if you're new to programming and interested in developing for Mac OS X, I highly recommend picking it up. It doesn't cover all the GUI stuff, but it will give you a very good foundation of the underlying concepts of OOP and excellent coding tips.
  
  
• Great Introduction!
  By AHTLO92KK4ISZ on 2005-09-14
  Without teaching optional APIs, Kochan gently guides the reader into Objective-C. The best part? There is no prior C programming knowledge required. Well written, fairly well edited, this is a great introduction to Objective-C. I highly recommend this book.
  
  
• Great Intro to ObjC and OOP for beginners
  By AW3FPY8MBF697 on 2006-08-11
  I bought this book out of frustration, after trying to work through other introductory books on Objective-C and Java. This book provides straightforward explanations, clear example code, and end of chapter exercises that are not impossibly difficult. The author has even posted the answers to the odd numbered exercises on the book website. Thank you for this!
  
  This book is, hands down, the best introductory Objective-C text I've found. I also own the author's text on C, and find it very useful.
  
  
• A soild introduction to Obj-C
  By AMIU8UVMZJLER on 2006-12-26
  This book was a very good introduction to the Objective-C programming language. Before I bought this book I did have some programming experience in PHP and Perl, but I did not feel like such experience was needed in reading the book. More importantly, it did not matter that I had no previous C or C++ experience. It is important to note that this book does not really cover making applications for Mac OS X in depth. In addition to purchasing this book I also purchased "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X" by Aaron Hillegass, which did a much better job of covering the specific aspects of making Cocoa applications.
  
  
• Read this book. Then learn Cocoa
  By A25CME9NOE73I2 on 2004-05-22
  Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally a book that teaches how to write Objective-C programs. Now I will become an expert on Cocoa.
  
  
• Great book to get started with Objective-C
  By A1W0WP6WGN6TIC on 2006-02-24
  This book was a great help in learning the Objective-C language. It focuses on the language and touches on sme specific areas of Cocoa. A vetran C++ programmer, I found this book to be a quick way to come up to speed on Objective-C.
  
  The organization is well thought out and clearly written. It would be a great book for a someone who has never programmed in C and for vetrans wishing to learn a new language. The book is easy to read and organized in a manner that makes it quite useful as a reference after reading it.
  
  
• A great book for people new to Objective C
  By A1D9FR6D53KOD0 on 2007-01-15
  For a Ruby programer interested in learning Objective-C I found this book to be perfect for a newcomer. In fact I find this to be the best C related book I have read. Highly reccomended.
  
  
• One of the Best Instructional Books Ever
  By A3IC9L47YD78HX on 2007-03-15
  Kochan is an educator and that comes through VERY clearly. To give you some perspective on where this review comes from - I am a Macintosh Systems Engineer. Before Kochan's book, I had read part of the Second Edition Absolute Beginners Guide to C by Perry, which was great, then tried to read Hillegass's Cocoa book and had to give up. I moved on to my certifications and installing Xserves, learning to shell script in Bash and all that jazz then came back to programming with Kochan's book.
  
  ANYONE INTERESTED IN COCOA PROGRAMMING WHO DOES NOT KNOW OBJECTIVE C SHOULD READ THIS BOOK FIRST. You may be able to get away with not reading it if you are already a programmer familiar with object oriented programming. But for a server admin like myself, this book was a godsend. You may not even need to learn C before reading this, though it couldn't hurt. Certainly I was not an expert in C when I picked this book up.
  
  The examples are great and give you some useful tools with which to build your own programs. Everything you read on Cocoa programming will be MUCH easier if you wade your way througth this masterpiece first. This book is strictly Objective-C. No Cocoa. It's implied that you're probably reading it because you'll want to program for Macs (and I certainly did), but it remains platform agnostic. And it is not a hard read at all! Well, the section on operators and variable types is a bit dry, but when you get back into loops, qualifiers and conditions, you'll start smiling again!
  
  I love programming. I have always thought of it as a combination of geometry (postualtes and theorems) and algebra that allows you to be infinitely creative. Kochan's book makes Objective-C seem like an easy place to start building your applications and tapping the power of your computer! I am grateful for this text!
  
  
• Great for picking up Obj-C 1.0, don't use for learning the framework
  By A31PQVJ65GNKKI on 2008-04-03
  This is a great book if you want to learn objective-c 1.0 and are looking for a quick read. It assumes that you have no programming experience which makes it really easy and provides a good refresher on C based programming in case it has been a while for you.
  
  If you are looking for a book on the foundation framework with the intention of doing some programming on the Mac then look else where. This book does not cover the entire framework and its material is a little dated.
  
  !Take Note! This book covers objective-c 1.0 so it does not cover "properties" and "fast enumeration" which were the major features added to objective-c 2.0 which is the current version of objective-c.
  
  
• Fantastic introduction to Objective-C
  By A1Y572N9G2XVOT on 2007-02-17
  I'm a Naval Architect needing to code in Objective-C and I was scared to death when I first read the documentation available on apple's website on the matter. But this book make it all clear and simple. If you're a bigginer or that you haven't encountered object oriented programming, this is a very good introduction.
  
  
• iPhone Developers, Start Here!
  By A2NVJHBOWWN0LN on 2008-06-25
  If you want to develop applications for the iPhone, you'll need to learn how to program in Objective-C. This is the best resource for doing that. Kochan explains each feature of the language using clear, simple examples and a straightforward and concise writing style. Even if you're a relatively new programmer, you can learn how to write Objective-C programs from this text. Unlike other references on Objective-C, Kochan does not assume you know how to program in C as a prerequisite. This is a good thing and a key pedagogical point, as the foundation for object-oriented programming is laid right from the start. Instead of having to learn how the underlying procedural C language works first, you are instead taught from the beginning to think in terms of classes, instances, and methods.
  
  Once you have learned Objective-C from this book, you'll be ready to move on and tackle Cocoa and the frameworks that Apple provides to write iPhone applications. This book makes that task that much easier. The bottom line is that this is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn Objective-C and who needs a clear, well-written tutorial to lead the way. Only very experienced object-oriented programmers need not apply!
  
  
  
• DONOT get the EBook!
  By A18S1H0SNR5Z60 on 2006-01-21
  It is has the worst thing that can ever happen to you in you life! It is riddled with DRM errors, Adobe does not support it or people donot have a clue about how to deal with ebooks. Stay away from it as plague!
  
  
• Excellent
  By AMZ89WKORQRJF on 2007-08-07
  This is a great book for a beginning Objective C programmer. The only con is that it is a little out-dated and slow. Still though for beginning Mac OS X programmers it is indispensable.
  
  

• Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition)
• Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (2nd Edition)
• The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Applications with the iPhone SDK (Developer's Library)
• Beginning Xcode (Programmer to Programmer)
• iPhone Open Application Development: Write Native Objective-C Applications for the iPhone