Step into Xcode: MAC OS X Development

By Fritz Anderson

A Step-by-Step Guide to the Xcode Mac OS Development Environment Every copy of Mac OS X comes with Xcode, the powerful development suite that Apple uses to build applications ranging from Safari to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321334221
• ISBN13: 9780321334220
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 463 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Lays a great foundation

This book covers a lot of ground - great for beginning Xcoders, especially CodeWarrior converts. Not quite as in-depth as I thought it would be, based on the description, but well worth the price.

Lots of useful info.

As to a recommendation, I'd say yes. Step into Xcode is most valuable to those getting started with Xcode, but even for people who have been using it for a little while you are sure to pick up a few tips and tricks.

Overall a very good book but has the usual technical errors.

I am currently more than halfway through this book now and already I can say that I am very happy with my purchase. Firstly, this is not a programming how-to book. Plus, I don't think it should be your first Mac development book. The purpose of this book is to provide you with a solid understanding of the Xcode tool and to teach you some smart application design methods. I recommend that you start reading this book already knowing some Objective-C and Cocoa (at least a little anyway) because you will take with you so much more than just how to use the Xcode tool. Actually, without any Cocoa programming knowledge, you may just end up confused. The reason I say this is because the examples use intermediate to advanced Cocoa programs to illustrate Xcode as you advance through the book. This book starts you off with some background information about what happens when you compile a Cocoa application, how the runtime system works and some basic debugging skills. It then instructs the reader to build a command line tool which eventually buds into a mature Cocoa application as the chapters go by, each chapter adding a major feature to the application while introducing additional Xcode features as you go. Some of the Xcode features that I've already learned include: Including a command line tool in a project as a target dependency, how to build and include a static BSD library in a project, using Text Macros to add language-specific code patterns to the Xcode menus, I've expanded my knowledge of Cocoa bindings, how to include a framework target, working with dynamic libraries and more. Follow the examples! I was actually pleasantly surprised at the Cocoa skills I've learned simply from the examples' code. They are not typical. I've already assimilated the following intermediate to advanced Cocoa programming skills: Calling a command line tool from a Cocoa app using pipes and tasks, building and calling functions from a BDC static library, design skills that promote code decoupling and mixing C and Obj-C conventions together. I do have some gripes: Technical errors! I've never written a book but how difficult is it to make sure that the samples work once you reach the end of a chapter? And I'm not talking about the intentional errors the author left in the code that are later fixed. For example, in one chapter the book instructed me to add 3 object controllers in Interface Builder. By the end of the chapter the program didn't run because I was never instructed to configure one of the three controllers. I went back to make sure I didn't miss anything. I was able to figure it out myself after some time (another reason you should not be a newbie reading this book) but this error and others should not have made it into the book. Don't authors proof read their own work or at least have a couple of other people read the book and try out the examples? Sheesh! Also, be warned. I have yet to find any errata or contact info for the author fo

Worth buying!

Fritz Anderson really does a great job covering the ins and outs of Xcode in this book. If you are going to program on the Mac, the in-depth information in this book is a necessity! There are real programming examples to follow along with each chapter, and plenty of screenshots to describe what's going on. I'm glad I purchased "Step Into Xcode," and it has earned a spot on my bookshelf along with Aaron Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming" and Stephen Kochan's "Programming in Objective-C".