macOS books tutorials or examples?

[liptonlover]

which do you prefer when learning and why?

I think examples with comments to teach you are best. Going through the code line by line with everything explained is great. Also when you get to lengthier examples you don't have to type it all in.

 

[tacoman667]

This REALLY depends on how each individual learns best. I learn material best in practical situations. I get an idea to do something and i end up learning all i can about a certain framework or feature-set in order to get it done. I am learning .NET WCF this way as I type this.

 

[yeroen]

Ultimately, with programming, the only way to learn is by doing. You can read about it all you like and follow the tutorials, but even the most minimal competence only comes through many hours spent at the terminal hacking away and making your own mistakes.

For theory and expositions, however, I still prefer books to online material.

 

[lazydog]

Books for sure - with online material it's too easy to become distracted and wander off the subject, by checking email, weather, forums… like this one… and so on. At least it is for me. I enjoy learning from books that explain concepts and ideas with words and diagrams. Maybe I've got a short attention span, but going through lots of code line by line is enough to send me to sleep!

b e n

 

[Cromulent]

Books because because they are more likely to be better written than some of the dross on the internet. Of course there are good websites too but they are harder to find.

 

[jamesapp]

i like books, for one reason you can open a book and look at it. i guess you could do the same thing with a web tutorial. but i think it's funner to use a book, is funner a word?

 

[lazydog]

is funner a word?

it's not been in any book that I've readed.

b e n

 

[liptonlover]

pros:
books - tend to be better, because they managed to get published.
tutorials (online) - can be updated easily, unlike a book. Also can easily copy and paste examples.
examples (download with comments) - can easily learn line by line. Don't have to worry about your own mistakes in copying, it's already there and [hopefully] tested to see if it works.
cons:
books - a lot harder to update, and then you have to buy the next version.
tutorials - more people do them, harder to find the quality content.
examples - ???

 

[SthrnCmfrtr]

I'm really partial to the development docs that Apple has posted. An excellent secondary resource I've found has been the wiki at CocoaDev.

Plus Apple has a staggering amount of sample code, and there're also plenty of open source frameworks and snippets out there.

I'd agree that books are definitely best for theory. Learning Objective-C through Apple's online documents has been a bit harrowing because I've never coded anything but QBASIC in the 6th grade and a little AppleScript and PHP. And Objective-C makes PHP look like a Dick and Jane book.

(Granted, I've only been coding a week.)