I did a lot of research before buying this book, and the overwhelming accolades seemed to assure me that my [...] bucks would be money well-spent. Personally, I feel very let down by it. The way the author jumps into code without explanation, routinely giving you half a page of calls with absolutely zero previous discussion of what they do or where they come from, is both baffling and frustrating.
Most of the exercises are conducted with a tone along the lines of "Just do what I tell you and it'll make sense later," which doesn't suit my learning style.
Much of the book is focused on multi-chapter projects, which can be problematic for someone who has a project in mind and simply wants to learn how different aspects of Cocoa work.
Also, the text really fails at answering any questions you might have about anything. Seriously, if you have a question in your head, you will never find the answer unless you muddle through the assignment. The book has a tendency to never talk about anything in particular with any depth, and only explains things in as much as they apply to the current example.
For future editions, here are some recommendations:
1) When you introduce a new object, give us a list of methods near the beginning of the chapter, so we aren't constantly guessing what you're talking about. There are times when every new line of code feels like a surprise.
2) Cover some basic things that actual people want to know. Here's a big one: "How do I open and parse a file?"
3) Take it easy on the line drawings. They sometimes make things seem a lot more complex than they actually are.
4) The cavalier handling of Bindings is often infuriating. I've re-read sections literally a dozen times without figuring out why things are bound to this thing instead of that.
Anyway, that's just my two cents. This book is decent, and it will tell you how to do a LOT of things, but you really have to earn it. It's a textbook, and it expects you to follow a course from beginning to end. If you're not willing to do that, you really shouldn't pick up this book, as it will drive you nuts.
Also, once it starts getting into writing code, you have to be patient enough to roll with it when you're confused. For me, the book left so many unanswered questions while I was working through it that I was almost perpetually filled with angst over things. I'd rather learn one thing at a time, learn it well, and move on to another thing.Get more detail about
Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition).
