macOS Getting Started With Objective-C/Cocoa

[ryanzec]

I am switching my main platform from Windows to Mac and one thing I really want to learn how to do is Objective-C/Cocoa. With someone who already has good experience in C++ and C#, what training materials would you recommend? I am looking for something that does not go over the basic stuff in detail like what a variable is and what are control statements and stuff like that which I already know. Something that is geared towards people who already have a programming background would be great. I like video training the best but any recommendations would be great (Videos, books, online articles, etc...). Thanks.

 

[gnasher729]

I am switching my main platform from Windows to Mac and one thing I really want to learn how to do is Objective-C/Cocoa. With someone who already has good experience in C++ and C#, what training materials would you recommend? I am looking for something that does not go over the basic stuff in detail like what a variable is and what are control statements and stuff like that which I already know. Something that is geared towards people who already have a programming background would be great. I like video training the best but any recommendations would be great (Videos, books, online articles, etc...). Thanks.

Go to developer.apple.com, get a free online ADC (Apple Developer Connection) account, look around on the website. There is a nice introduction to Objective-C, which should be reasonably easy if you know C++ (but it _is_ different from C++). And for developing Cocoa applications, there is a tutorial to build a small Cocoa application. That should also get you started with Interface Builder.

Or start iTunes, in Preferences turn on "iTunes U" (stands for iTunes university), and Stanford has a course "iPhone application development" which you can download for free.

 

[BadWolf13]

I am switching my main platform from Windows to Mac and one thing I really want to learn how to do is Objective-C/Cocoa. With someone who already has good experience in C++ and C#, what training materials would you recommend? I am looking for something that does not go over the basic stuff in detail like what a variable is and what are control statements and stuff like that which I already know. Something that is geared towards people who already have a programming background would be great. I like video training the best but any recommendations would be great (Videos, books, online articles, etc...). Thanks.

I'm in the same situation as you. I programmed with C++, Turing, Visual Basic, all over the place. Having made the decision recently to start programming in OS X, I found one book, Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X, very helpful. It's expensive, but worth the investment in my mind.

 

[GorillaPaws]

I would recommend reading Apple's docs, particularly on Objective-C and Cocoa. Then, you optionally might want to take a look at Kochan's "Programming in Objective-C 2.0" as a reference. The whole first half you can probably skip because it will probably be too simplistic for you. The second half deals with the meat classes of the Foundation Framework, which will be very useful (but you can figure this out elsewhere if you're trying to save a bit of money).

Hillegass's "Cocoa Programming for OS X 3rd edition" is pretty essential. It's considered by many to be the Bible of Cocoa programming and after working through it, you'll have a pretty good sense of how things work in Cocoa.