I want to learn how to create software. I know a fair amount of C and some C++. I want to learn Objective-C and Cocoa. I will devote any amount of time or money to learn how to create software. Any recommendations on tutorial sites or books. I need a source that covers the basics. And maybe a few advanced things here and there. I see great software, and I ask myself; How does someone make that? Thanks for reading this.
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If time/money really is no object, I would highly recommend The Big Nerd Ranch's 7-day Beginning Cocoa Bootcamp course. You should also check out Kochan's book as well as the Hillegass one used in the course. The course moves very quickly since there is so much info to cover, so I would suggest you work through the material beforehand so that you can focus your attention on grocing things you may not understand as opposed to having everything being new information.
There's also Cocoa Dev Central, which seems pretty good (I used Hillegass, because I got it from my school for free).
EDIT: Should mention that some of the tutorials haven't been updated for the current version of Xcode.
EDIT: Should mention that some of the tutorials haven't been updated for the current version of Xcode.
Hi,
I strongly recommend to read the Stephen Kochan book before you start to read the Hillegass one. The simple reason behind this is that you will get a much deepter understanding about the whole topic this way. After that you will be really well prepared to program for Mac OS X or even the iPhone. I do not recommend buying books on the more advanced topics, even though Hillegass wrote one (and others, too). The Apple documentation will serve you much better for all those advanced things.
Well, this is at least the path I took and it worked really well.
thingsis
I strongly recommend to read the Stephen Kochan book before you start to read the Hillegass one. The simple reason behind this is that you will get a much deepter understanding about the whole topic this way. After that you will be really well prepared to program for Mac OS X or even the iPhone. I do not recommend buying books on the more advanced topics, even though Hillegass wrote one (and others, too). The Apple documentation will serve you much better for all those advanced things.
Well, this is at least the path I took and it worked really well.
thingsis
Which topics would these be? I've often found the Apple docs make you just read reference files, with no indication of what the "accepted" way to do things are.
Any amount? What about four or six years at a university? That would be the best way. That's that EVERYONE I work with did.
What you will find is that learning to make software is not the same as learning a programming language. Just as writing fiction is not the same as learning to run a work processor. However in both cases you do need to know the tools of the trade.
The best way to learn is to join an Open Source project. A good one in Open Office. These guys are building an office suit to compete with Microsoft Office and need people who can help with the Max OS X port. Working on this will allow you to wok on a project other then those "toy" projects you see in books and learn about what is really the hard part of software enginerring -- working inside a process and working with others. There is just so much that overshadows simply knowing the language that you can only get by "being there". These guys will let you be there. There are other projects too. But don't pick one that is small.
You need books but "books first" is backwards. Do the project then when you need to know something go to the book. Be project driven not book driven.
A good university education will force this on you. Mostly they assume you know or can learn a programming language and will give asignmants and then you have to read and ask around to get the asignments done. It's more stuctured and fast there but you cn learn simply by making self asignments.