iOS Which of these books are good for a beginner?

[ifaptoomuch]

Hey guys,

I have a coupon at O'reilly and I wanted to use it to get a resource for learning iOS programming.

http://shop.oreilly.com/category/browse-subjects/programming/ios-programming.do

Which from the above do you guys recommend for beginners? It doesnt seem like there are many good iOS 7 resources out yet so will it be useless to use a book on iOS 6?

There are also these books that are about general Apple programming

http://shop.oreilly.com/category/browse-subjects/programming/apple-programming.do

What do you guys recommend?

 

[iMacFarlane]

Probably not want you want to hear, but the books I can't recommend highly enough are not on your list. They are:

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 by Stephen Kochan (5th Edition)

and

iOS Programming by Big Nerd Ranch (3rd Edition)

These are extraordinarily good books. The major issue, of course, being that the target environment of the books is iOS 6 in XCode 4. I'm sure they're working on new editions to cover the current devchain. Just my two cents. I'm sure O-Reilly has plenty of good books, but I don't have any first hand experience with them.

 

[ifaptoomuch]

Thanks for the response!

I've heard great things about Big Nerd Ranch, and I'm waiting for the 4th edition of their book to come out which covers iOS 7 but I wanted something to kind of tide me over until then. I'll check out the other book that you recommended.

Will I have many problems using an older book and doing the exercises on Xcode 5? Did a lot change?

 

[iMacFarlane]

Honestly, the difference between XCode 4 and XCode 5 is pretty small, besides the horrendous amount of white and the removal of color and gradients in the UI. This is all part of Apple's current fascination with "flattening". I don't see much of an issue trying to follow an old book for XCode 4.

However, there is a radical difference between iOS6 and iOS7. Not just in the look of it (Major, major steps backward), but in the functions available for UI alignment (auto layout), attributed text, and many animation routines. The sheer number of "redacted" functions will make many of the code examples in older books hard to work with, since the functions you type in from them will no doubt say "redacted - use function umptyscrunch instead". Thanks XCode, I'll look there, you'll say. Only problem is, now you're learning from Apple documentation instead of that book you bought. And the book you bought would have been so much easier to follow . . .

 

[ifaptoomuch]

Ah bummer. So it looks like I have no choice but to wait until iOS 7 books come out.

Are there any video courses or a track that you recommend to a total noob? I only know mark up languages and some JS so I thought about doing the Learn Python & C The Hard Way courses to get my feet wet into programming. Do some of the iOS / Obj-C stuff on Codeschool as well.

I was watching the Stanford iOS 7 development course but from the intro it sounded like I was going to have a really tough time if I didnt have at least a basic understanding of a programming language or C.

 

[MattInOz]

You could crack into C then Objective-C on the current books with no trouble. They either use very basic xCode features or use command line and text editor. By the time you get comfortable with Objective-C the iOS 7 books will be out and you'll be ready to tackle them.

 

[1458279]

+1 on what MattInOz said.

Learning iOS7 is learning an operating system. C/ObjC is separate.

I would look into the Big Nerd Ranch ObjC book. Learning iOS6 while waiting for iOS7 books will not be a waste if time.

ObjC is a pretty big chunk to chew on, so best to get started.

 

[IDMah]

I read big nerd stuff, and liked it. enough. but

I refere to this a lot:
Beginning iOS 5 Application Development by Wei-Meng Lee

It's one of the few that talks you through the provisioning and app store submission frustration maze.

Also cover a multitude of advanced subjects, despite it's 'Beginning' title.
Also reasonably priced.

Read a book, BUT Start a project to really learn it gives you a focus.
Good luck good coding!
Ian

 

[thekev]

You could crack into C then Objective-C on the current books with no trouble. They either use very basic xCode features or use command line and text editor. By the time you get comfortable with Objective-C the iOS 7 books will be out and you'll be ready to tackle them.

Some Objective-C books essentially start with C, even if they're likely to use different functions and not pull from from some of the older libraries. If it's a beginner's Objective-C book they won't touch on anything that can't be done within C for the first half of the book. That would be my experience with C++ books and the big nerd ranch book.

 

[1458279]

I read big nerd stuff, and liked it. enough. but

I refere to this a lot:
Beginning iOS 5 Application Development by Wei-Meng Lee

It's one of the few that talks you through the provisioning and app store submission frustration maze.

Also cover a multitude of advanced subjects, despite it's 'Beginning' title.
Also reasonably priced.

Read a book, BUT Start a project to really learn it gives you a focus.
Good luck good coding!
Ian

Didn't Apple change the whole provisioning and submission process in Xcode 5?

I thought (don't know for sure) it was now a simple click and go.

I don't mine older books, but this one is selling for $30. $30 for a 2 OS behind book is unreal. It should be a $6 book based on how old it is.

It might have good C/C++ info thou.