OS X/iOS Programming • Hacker News Board

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#11

Post by minischneides » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 4:52 PM UTC

joubert wrote: post #3

The bible is certainly Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/cocoa®_programming_for_mac®... The Apple documentation is outstanding. http://developer.apple.com/resources/ Check out ObjC and iOS podcasts. My favorite Cocoa website it http://theocacao.com/ Delicious might also help you: http://delicious.com/tag/cocoa

Much thanks, I'll be sure to check out some of those sources. I've always found the Apple docs a little bit daunting, but I'll give them another shot.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#12

Post by erlanger » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 4:59 PM UTC

Is this some new trend where nobody prefixes self posts with "Ask HN"?

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#13

Post by scrod » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 5:04 PM UTC

glhaynes wrote: post #7

If you're going to want to run your iOS apps on actual devices (not just the built-in simulator), you'll need a $99/year iPhone Developer membership from Apple. Said membership comes with access to videos from this year's Worldwide Developer Conference, many of which will be helpful to you. EDIT: They're available to free dev accounts as well! Thanks for the corrections.

>"If you're going to want to run your iOS apps on actual devices (not just the built-in simulator), you'll need a $99/year iPhone Developer membership from Apple..."

Which is a good reason to get acclimated to Objective-C/Cocoa by writing desktop Mac OS X software _first_. You'd need a Mac in both cases, and there are no barriers to deployment.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#14

Post by xtacy » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 5:20 PM UTC

erlanger wrote: post #12

Is this some new trend where nobody prefixes self posts with "Ask HN"?

It should be possible for the software to prefix "Ask HN" automatically. (if none exists..) But yeah, it just requires little effort from those posting the story. :)

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#15

Post by Skroob » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 5:22 PM UTC

Craig Hockenberry's Missing Manual book on iPhone development is excellent, and I recommend it to everyone who's interested in learning iOS development. http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596809775

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#16

Post by thefunk » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 5:37 PM UTC

Hoff wrote: post #10

joubert wrote: post #3

The bible is certainly Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/cocoa®_programming_for_mac®... The Apple documentation is outstanding. http://developer.apple.com/resources/ Check out ObjC and iOS podcasts. My favorite Cocoa website it http://theocacao.com/ Delicious might also help you: http://delicious.com/tag/cocoa

Having looked at both in some detail, Daniel Steinberg's Cocoa Programming book http://pragprog.com/titles/dscpq/cocoa-programming might be preferable to Hillegass's book.

why?

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#17

Post by minischneides » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 6:05 PM UTC

erlanger wrote: post #12

Is this some new trend where nobody prefixes self posts with "Ask HN"?

Sorry, I wasn't aware that was a "requirement". I'll keep it in mind for future posts.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#18

Post by access_denied » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 6:05 PM UTC

> hints about what I might read to become better at the interface design aspect of my application.

Got to the internet archive, dig out the first original website of 37signals. Read the site, think about it. They were a cutting edge design firm back then. Also check out Hilman Curtis. Read the stuff on the website A list Apart. After that you will have a certain understanding of UID and related stuff. The rest is doing, showing off, iterate, iterate, iterate.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#19

Post by ivanzhao » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 6:08 PM UTC

Objective-C is fairly simple, while Cocoa is vast and complex. The distinct is important.

It might take you awhile to get familiar with Cocoa and all its patterns built on top of NSObject.

"Cocoa Design Patterns, by Buck and Yacktman" is a very good book to get the big picture right, but might be slightly overwhelming at the beginning (as there are many patterns/ways to solve the same problem in Cocoa).

Read Apple's documents: I still find it the best way to learn the details of Cocoa. The writing is dry and quite dense, so you might need to read it multiple times.

Another thing to remember is that Cocoa is a framework: it demands to be followed and not be fought against.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#20

Post by minischneides » Sat, Jun 26, 2010, 6:14 PM UTC

ivanzhao wrote: post #19

Objective-C is fairly simple, while Cocoa is vast and complex. The distinct is important. It might take you awhile to get familiar with Cocoa and all its patterns built on top of NSObject. "Cocoa Design Patterns, by Buck and Yacktman" is a very good book to get the big picture right, but might be slightly overwhelming at the beginning (as there are many patterns/ways to solve the same problem in Cocoa). Read Apple's…

I will keep that in mind, thank you.