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Cocoa in a Nutshell
Cocoa is a great thing to learn, and if you've got some relevant experience with other languages, this book is a great way to learn it. It's one of the Apple Developer Connection recommended O'Reilly titles, and comprises a complete and thorough reference to the language that most Cocoa developers will appreciate.
I say most Cocoa developers rather than all of them because this is of course a Nutshell handbook - it's not intended to serve as a step-by-step tutorial for those without any prior Cocoa or object-oriented programming experience (for that, there's Learning Cocoa with Objective-C). Readers completely unfamiliar with the language may find the book a little bewildering, it's true. However, that's not to say you need to have already mastered the language before picking up the Nutshell book - the first part contains quite a decent introduction, and if you're already familiar with something like Java, this will probably be all you need. I have a couple of years of experience with C and Java myself, and although this was my first Cocoa book, I didn't feel lost when reading the book's first half.
Coauthor Michael Beam notes that "The 'In a Nutshell' format had always been a very efficient means of communicating information, particularly for more experienced developers. Cocoa is a very verbose and wordy API; that is, the method names are long and can have many arguments. It is often the case that a developer can be moving along in his code, and he knows what method to use, but can't remember the precise syntax. This book seeks to provide a quick way to look up that syntax." I think that's a goal it achieves admirably, and as long as readers are aware they're buying a reference and not a gentle introduction to programming, they won't be disappointed.
It's primarily the second half of the book that serves as a complement to Apple's documentation for the Foundation and AppKit classes. Apple's Cocoa site is better than it used to be, and it does include a basic API Reference along the line's of Sun's site for the Java API - you can use it for the kind of syntax-checking Beam is talking about, and many developers do just that. If you're already in the habit of looking things up on the Apple site, the API documentation in this book won't change your life. I prefer it to the web version, partially because there's slightly more explanation of the various classes, but not everyone will feel the same way.
So, who should buy this book? The intended audience is pretty much the same as that of the other programming-related Nutshell books. If you're completely new to programming, don't bother. You'll be much better off starting with something that assumes no knowledge of programming concepts and skills. On the other hand, if you're an experienced Cocoa developer who'd rather use Apple's Cocoa site than shell out for a book, there's really no reason to do so. But plenty of people don't fall into either of these categories. If you've got some OOP experience, and especially if you've already fumbled your way through a little bit of Cocoa but would like to learn more, you'll find the overview section very useful and the reference section convenient. (It's probably also worth noting that, at least at the moment, Amazon is offering Cocoa in a Nutshell for $15.98, down from $39.95. Even if you're not totally convinced it's worth forty bucks, it's definitely worth sixteen.)
You can also purchase Cocoa in a Nutshell from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page
Everyone knows the proper woodcut to put on the cover is a coconut, not some stupid dog.
O'Reilly handed out the book for free at WWDC '03 ot all attendees. (I have to question how smart it can be to hand out a book for free to such a large portion of your target population).
It looks nice, especially the part on the text system, but I can't say I've used it a lot in the year that has passed.
Chocolate covered apples, anyone?
Chris Knight is my hero.
I've flipped through the Cocoa nutshell book at the store. Personally, I didn't think it was worth it simply because the documentation and help browser are so nice in XCode. I mean you can option click or command click on a method or class and it takes you right there. What would be really nice is a book of cocoa design patterns and in-depth looks at some of the more confusing classes rather than a listing of classes and methods with little explanation.
FYI, Amazon also sell nuts in a cocoa shell.
So... a cocoanut? Is this that book written by the guy on that "Castaway" documentary?
WILSON! WILSON!
My name's Voit, moron!
True story.
The Nutshell books make for great reference material, but developers new to the NeXT / Mac OS X world would be better served by ORA's other book, Learning Cocoa. I paged thru this book a few weeks ago at a Barnes and Noble... the book is an updated version of the getting started guide NeXT published years ago... I highly recommended the original back then and still think it's a great way to learn NS / Cocoa as well as Objective C.
AppKiDo It parses the cocoa docs installed by XCode for quick easy access.
Shouldn't that be
Shelled Cocoa
For example, here's a script (from the RubyCocoa home page) that plays the system sounds:Although he probably could have use Dir.glob rather than parsing the output of ls, but, anyhow...
The Army reading list
It's probably also worth noting that, at least at the moment, Amazon is offering Cocoa in a Nutshell for $15.98, down from $39.95.
That's probably a good indication that a new edition is on its way. Like most other frameworks, Cocoa is constantly growing. Apple recently added the controller layer and key value binding to support it. These things are important, but they aren't mentioned in the Nutshell book right now. $16 isn't a bad deal for a slightly out of date edition, IMO, but if you want a complete reference, wait a month or two. WWDC is coming up, and I would be surprised if O'Reilly didn't update this volume then.
Besides, if you're using Xcode, or even if you're not, you hardly need a paper reference to Cocoa. Xcode's code completion feature really helps jog your memory, and full documentation for all the classes is just a click or two away.
It's pretty smart. O'Reilly aren't banking on the WWDC attendees only ever buying this one of their books. But they are banking on them being interested in this one, and from that gaining a favorable impression of them and their products.
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Don't forget O'Reilly offers upgrades to their books. If you absolutely must have Cocoa in a Nutshell now, snag it from Amazon and then send in your title page and $27.97 when the new edition arrives. Cheaper than buying the old edition at full price and then upgrading to the newer.
If you can wait, of course, you'll get it cheapest of all.
...a cappuccino.
Well, there is no new edition of Cocoa in a Nutshell listed on the O'Reilly New and Upcoming Titles Page. Then again, the upcoming titles list only goes through June. Perhaps we can expect the new edition in July.
Only Women Bleed (Sex, Sharia remix)
Given that WWDC is at the end of June, it's entirely likely to be a new edition coming soon. O'Reilly gave everybody one last year, if I recall correctly. I have one on the shelf and I don't remember buying it. I'm not much of a GUI person despite meaning to do more with it.
I'm coo coo for Cocoa Nuts (oh, shell... nevermind)
how can you properly use a language without understand what makes the language fundamentally different from others? each language has it's own set of useful features that make certain design patterns obsolete or easier. none of them cover the CORE of cocoa! obj-c. they all do a half-assed job in my opinion, so i bought and read a book just on objective-c. i highly recommend Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan. I've written a large tutorial on the objective-c language by itself based off of many of his examples, and have provided links to other objective-c tutorials and cocoa/obj-c books at the bottom of the page.
- tristan
For anyone interested, GNUStep implements the Cocoa API.
http://www.gnustep.org/
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
The link: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/cocoaian/ Kinda makes you wonder, don't it?
Even 14 year old cokeheads can spell it.
The Nutshell series includes some of the most well-worn and useful technical books I own
Never have truer words been spoken, as O'Reilly just released an update to Porn In A Nutshell
There is nothing in this book that isn't on the developer cd documentation or online.
C on ceptual/ObjectiveC/
o a
'Cocoa in a nutshell' contains a short introductory chapter on Obj-C, one on the Foundation library, one on App-Kit, one on Quartz and a few others, they're okay but not great.
If you want to learn Obj-C you'd be better of reading:
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/
After that the rest of the book is a big Javadoc-style API reference to all of Cocoa.
If you really need it in dead-tree form then maybe it's useful, but otherwise look at:
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/Coc
Wouldn't it be hard to drink very much that way? I mean, even if it's a walnut shell, that's what, half an ounce at a time, at the best, if you hollow it out?
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
Check this out.
...cocoa in a nuuut-shellll... *argle* *argle*
Intel transfer the difficult from Hadware to software, for get more power, programmer need more technology. -- chinaitn
its very clean.
Its certainly not contaminated by cheese.
Cocoa - warm milk, powdered chocolate. serve to taste.
/book/ about that?
They actually wrote an entire
The Objective-C Pocket Reference from ORA is an awesome companion to any and all Cocoa and Objective-C books. It gives a good overview of the language as long as you've got some previous OO programming knowlege. One of its best features is its platform agnosticism. The compiled used with all of the examples is gcc so its quirks and foibles are explained and noted where applicable. You'd also be hard pressed to find one of the examples in the book that didn't run equally well on the GNU and Darwin runtimes. For a good primer on the language it is a really nice handbook and could get a moderately experienced programmer up to speed with Objective-C in an afternoon.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
I mentioned the link because it normally isn't possible to do this with an iBook / iMac / eMac - they only support monitor mirroring. The previous link tells of a patch that allows your external display to act as a separate monitor - basically extending your desktop. It turns a cheap iBook into a powerbook, well, almost.
I'm not saying to not get a book, I personally love books. But the page I liked to will allow a person to extend their desktop for free. A hand utility for anyone with an iBook / iMac.. Just thought some people reading this might like to know about it.
William
Programming in Objective C is a great book if that's what you want to do: learn to program in Objective C. But if you want to learn Cocoa, there's one book to beat. Cocoa Programming by Anguish, Buck, and Yacktman, three coding demigods of NeXTSTEP.
0. You state that NSObject is short for NeXTSTEP Object, but you don't say WHY -- which is important! Objective-C does not have namespaces (like Java packages). But NeXT programmers often sold or gave objects to one another. NeXT's approach to dealing with classname clashes was to establish an 'initials registry': all objects in a library would have unique names because they would be prepended with initials of the organization providing the library. For example, all of OmniGroup's objects have 'OW' for OmniWeb I believe. Likewise, all standard NeXTSTEP objects (after version 3.2) were prepended with 'NS' -- NeXT's chosen initials in the registry. This practice continues to this day, and it is very wise.
1. Not only are protocols similar to Java interfaces, Java interfaces were explicitly (and famously) created based *on* Objective-C protocols, as much of the later Java team were ex-NeXT. Similarly, Java's Double, Integer etc. classes were inspired by the same wrapper classes in Objective-C.
2. Your description of release and autorelease is confusing: you imply that for every retain there must be exactly one release/autorelease. That's true. But there must also be a release/autorelease for every init as well. init does an implied retain. The old text "Object Oriented Programming and the Objective C Language" put it best:
- if you create an object with init, you own it and are required to release/autorelease it.
- if you receive an object from another source and wish to hold onto it, you should retain it; but then you are responsible for releasing/autoreleasing at some point to undo the retain.
- if you create a factory method which builds an object solely for the purpose of handing it to the calling function, you should autorelease it before returning the function.
Hey moderator, go fuck yourself with a broken bottle.