iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (Big Nerd Ranch Guides) |  | Authors: Joe Conway, Aaron Hillegass
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $29.24
as of 9/9/2010 17:47 CDT details
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Rating:  25 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 7.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0321706242
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.1
EAN: 9780321706249
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Product Description
Based on Big Nerd Ranch’s popular iPhone Bootcamp class, iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide leads you through the essential tools and techniques for developing applications for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. In each chapter, you will learn programming concepts and apply them immediately as you build an application or enhance one from a previous chapter. These applications have been carefully designed and tested to teach the associated concepts and to provide practice working with the standard development tools Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments. The guide’s learn-while-doing approach delivers the practical knowledge and experience you need to design and build real-world applications. Here are some of the topics covered:
- Dynamic interfaces with animation
- Using the camera and photo library
- User location and mapping services
- Accessing accelerometer data
- Handling multi-touch gestures
- Navigation and tabbed applications
- Tables and creating custom rows
- Multiple ways of storing and loading data: archiving, Core Data, SQLite
- Communicating with web services
- ALocalization/Internationalization
"After many 'false starts' with other iPhone development books, these clear and concise tutorials made the concepts gel for me. This book is a definite must have for any budding iPhone developer." –Peter Watling, New Zealand, Developer of BubbleWrap
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
Love it. I can't stop reading it April 21, 2010
Jose L. Rivera (Orlando, Florida USA)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful
I love this book. I like the style and honesty of the author. Go right to the point. Is not boring. This is my 3rd iPhone Programming book. I love Jeff LaMarche too (It is also, a great intro to iPhone development). But, I think this one is less cluttered. I got the book yesterday (April 20, 2010). In two hours I read up to chapter 4 (I liked chapter 3 - Memory Management). Good introduction. The combination of XCode screen shots and UML charts are excellent complements to the text. I recommend this book (and Kochan, Objective-C programing book, latest edition) to anyone who wants learn how to program the iPhone. It is sad, that they don't have a chapter on OpenGL-ES, but it looks like the authors are planning to put together a book alone on this subject. I can't wait!. IMHO, Mr. Hillegas and his group, have (or has) mastered the art of communicating knowledge to the masses.
One of the best programming books I've ever read May 5, 2010
Samer A (Texas,USA)
28 out of 30 found this review helpful
I move from software technologies almost yearly, starting with PHP to ASP.NET and now starting iPhone development, so each year is basically another library of books I have to buy to teach myself the language. I've read a ridiculous amount of computer books, ranging from the terrible (super boring, dense) to the insultingly easy ones (that basically treat you like a 4th grader learning programming.)
This, thankfully, is a fantastic mix of being incredibly easy to pick up and read, and also super informative. As far as iPhone development goes, this will be my 4th introductory book I've picked up, trying to get a handle on developing for the platform. The other books all typically tend to throw you into immediately coding, and never really actually explain why you're doing what you're doing, or make sense of any of it. Yes, this book does start off with an example chapter that you basically just copy word for word, but that's mostly to get your feet wet before actually digging through all the details and building your foundation.
In the first 3-4 chapters of this book, I already feel like I have a complete grasp on subjects that I did not yet understand from the 3 previous books I've read. I sort of had an idea why I typed '*' in front of names, or what @property (retain) statements meant, but I never fully understood what I was doing--it was mostly just "well, I read it, so it must be the way to do it." Basically, the other books got me about 75-80% there, but this one is 100%. The last 20 I feel is the most important, because that's when you finally begin to understand the concepts of the language, which let you move onto the more complex stuff with confidence.
Another reason I feel this makes a great coding book is the layout of each page. I can't tell you how important it is to present all that text + code in a meaningful, organized way. I've read some books where they just hit you over the head with instructions, with almost no visual clues and with fragmented code samples. But the pages in this book have plenty of white space per page, have plenty of illustrations and each code sample is commented (an appropriate amount) to give you hints as you're typing code as to what you're doing.
Finally, and thank goodness for this, the first example in this book that you write is NOT a Hello, World app :)
In summation, if you're like me and have started to read a few books (or maybe you haven't, I wish I could have started with this one) and are looking for a way to really feel confident with iPhone core concepts, then pick this book up and give it a read. I can't wait to get started on the many project ideas I have!
Top of the Heap April 27, 2010
Joshua Paul (Los Angeles, CA)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
If you plan on picking up a book about iPhone programming, you've found the right one.
I have a *ton* of iPhone books (and programming books, in general), and this sits at the top of the heap. The book is easy to read and understand, and the code provided is reusable (bonus!). It's obvious the material is derived from an experienced team.
Ultimately I've found that I can "trust" the problems/solutions laid out in the book, since it's coming from The Big Nerd Ranch (search for it if you're not familiar).
5+ stars.
My 3 book recommendation for iPhone:
1) iPhone Programming (this book)
2) Programming in Objective-C (Kochan)
3) Cocoa Design Patterns (Buck, Yacktman)
A more excellent iPhone Development book! June 28, 2010
Darryl A. Snover (Lehigh Valley, PA USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As I've attempted to learn my way around iPhone and iPad development, I've purchase a few books (as likely many others have). Many of the books are informative, and will walk you through creating some interesting iPhone applications, but in many cases, some things are just 'assumed', and aren't explained. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Aaron Hillegass at a conference where he was presenting a session on Cocoa, and then, had a chance to sit with him over breakfast. His teaching style and ability to capture the audience were amazing, humorous, and above all, informative. It was therefore with high hopes that I awaited the Big Nerd Ranch Guide to iPhone Programming, and I have not been disappointed . From the beginning, the authors inject just enough humor to keep reader interest, and lay solid building blocks to ensure a good understanding of what is going on in the process. Very little is taken for granted, and the result is an easy to read, easy to understand, and extremely useful guide.
While I would personally LOVE to be able to attend one of the Big Nerd Ranch training classes (ah... that $$ thing...), this guide is serving as a reasonable alternative.
Best iPhone programming book for the slightly knowledgable July 14, 2010
Leslie Harback (Laurel, MD United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've been casting about for the past year or so to learn Objective-C for Mac and iPhone programming, and to be honest I've gone through quite a few books. I've found almost all of them to be one of two sorts: those that think the reader is an absolute beginner (and do way too much hand-holding like screenshots that include arrows pointing to the right button to press-- that kind of thing), and those that assume I have already learned Objective-C in some form, and don't explain enough. So far none of the other books available have made iPhone programming 'click' for me.
Then there is this excellent book. The authors, who are also originators of an Objective-C training program, take you step by step through each project, not just showing what needs to be done, but going into just enough detail. In some cases, they ask you to enter code, explaining that some of it may not make sense YET, but that it will be explained later. In almost every chapter, you're given not just the regular project, but also a series of 'challenge' assignments that apply what has been learned so far (but that also push the reader beyond the regular book projects), as well as a 'for the more curious' section that explains various concepts in more detail.
The end result is an extremely satisfying learning experience. Without fail I have given the challenge assignments my all, to great positive result. I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to learn iPhone programming, as long as you have some concept of programming to start with.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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