Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition)

Through this book you get a good introduction to Objective-C as you delve into Cocoa. At first, I was worried that I would need a supplemental Objective-C book to understand the concepts, but this was not the case. The examples and explanations are sufficient and can stand by themselves without need of other materials or knowledge.

Sometimes as I'd read through the chapters, I'd have questions about certain concepts that seemed to be glossed over. Yet, as the author will state, keep reading. Normally the concepts will be explained in full, within a few pages.

Excellent book and reference for developing on the Mac. Note that this is NOT for someone looking to learn Objective-C, but rather someone looking to learn the ins/outs of the Cocoa Frameworks and development process with XCode 3.

My only wish is that they include some iPhone specific sections in the next edition.

This book gives good directions to learn the Cocoa programming. However, it seems that this is another round of edition based on the previous one. The book constantly refers to the NIB file of the project being worked on, which was the old form of the current XIB file. It is a subtle thing but confusing enough to those who have never done Cocoa programming before. This sounds negative, but overall, the book gives good guidance to experienced programmers, (not necessarily in Objective-C.) I am now on Chapter 7, and getting accustomed to the quality level of the book. The book has Challenge questions in many of the chapters, and I advise everyone to work on them. The book is no way in text-book quality, but there are not many competing books in the market. I have given 4 starts indicating that the book is not bad but it leaves plenty rooms for improvements.

I just got the book a few days ago so i have not done much reading in it yet but i have to comment on one major flaw with my copy. The entire book was printed upside down. So when you open the book up with the cover right side up the first page is actually the last page upside down. I have never received a book like this before. My girlfriend laughed when she saw me reading my book upside down. It looks like i am pretending to read it or something. I am sure I will get many strange looks when reading this at the local coffee shop or any where in public. O well, its not worth sending back I guess. Otherwise the book appears to be a good book but time will tell as i get to read it more. It feels so strange to flip it over to the back upside down before opening. I wonder if any one else will get any of these freak copies.

This book is excellent. The explanations are short and very clear. The author makes cocoa really easy to learn, step by step. There are good and instructive exercices he calls challenges.
You can really get to work right after reading this book and completing the so called challenges. And it will certainly be a handy reference book.
A must have.