Filed under: Features, How-tos, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch
iPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources
It has been a while since the last iPhone Dev 101 post (and I must apologize for that -- sometime life can get in the way of different things, and this was one of those times). In this Dev 101 post, I want to take you through a few of my favorite resources for Cocoa/iPhone development. Some of these resources are books, while others are sites, but all of the resources are valuable to up and coming developers (and experiences developers) alike. Books
Some books are just invaluable and couldn't be replaced with another. Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac is just that book. Currently in its 3rd edition, the book gives you much of the Cocoa programming information that you need to program for both the Mac and iPhone. There are only a few subtle differences in programming for these platforms, namely the use of the Cocoa Touch. If you ever have the chance, going to one of the Big Nerd Ranch Cocoa programming classes gives you the ability to learn Cocoa hands-on.
Another title that is useful to beginning iPhone developers is the Beginning iPhone Development book. This book has a useful approach to stepping into the world that is programming on iPhone. It talks about numerous topics including UI design, Quartz, and OpenGL. Also covered in the book are APIs like CoreLocation and interfacing with the camera.
If you already know Cocoa and a little about iPhone development, Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer Cookbook is a great jumping off point to start development. She assumes, however, that you already understand Cocoa.
Continue reading to learn about more valuable books, websites, and resources for iPhone/Mac developers.
Websites
There are tons of websites that can offer you some help in beginning to learn Cocoa. One is the Mac Developer Network which hosts a podcast called "Late Night Cocoa" [iTunes Podcast Link] -- this is definitely worth a listen to.
If you have joined the $99 iPhone developer program, then you might want to check out the iPhone Developer Forums (currently in "beta" and found when you log into the Dev Center under "Development Resources").
Other great places to find information include: Stack Overflow and Cocoa Builder. These two sites allow you to find answers to specific questions that you might have while you are developing your apps. You can also find answers to the occasional question just by searching Google ... there are a lot of great resources out there, and we've only covered a few.
Apple Documentation
Of course, one of the best places to visit is the Apple documentation. Not only is it filled with pages and pages of information helpful for anyone who needs to look up APIs, classes, methods, etc., but you will use it on almost a daily basis. In addition to their iPhone Getting Started guides, they have an iPhone Reference Library available right at your fingertips, along with sample code.
There are other great resources out there, and I definitely don't know about all of them, nor would I be able to include all of them in a post. If you use another valuable site, book, or forum, be sure to let us know in the comments!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
iPhone said 10:14AM on 3-25-2009
You missed a big one: http://www.iphonedevsdk.com
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zydeco said 10:33AM on 3-25-2009
The Hillegass book is awesome. Make sure you get the new 3rd edition (green cover). Highly recommended.
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Jon said 10:33AM on 3-25-2009
One of my favorite sites:
http://www.cocoadev.com/
It consists of wiki pages with questions, sample code and discussions.
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moyse said 11:27AM on 3-25-2009
I know you guys are all friends of Erica's but there are some pretty critical reviews on Amazon, and I have to say they seem fair. I certainly won't be buying it ... but I agree the PragProg guys' book is very good for beginners.
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Josh said 11:46AM on 3-25-2009
pragstudio.com
Expensive, but worth it... I was at the latest one in Reston, VA ... learned a ton... but I learn better with interaction, so I prefer that over the books/websites to at least get all the foundation covered...
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ADT2 said 1:17PM on 3-25-2009
Unfortunately, none of these references are for "beginners." They all assume prior knowledge - Hillegass and Sadun in particular (and +1 on the negative reviews of Sadun's book...it's a mess).
Of great help to any beginner will be Absolute Beginner's Guide to C, 2nd Ed., and Programming in Objective-C 2.0, 2nd Ed. Don't believe the books that say you don't have to know C to know Objective-C; the latter is built upon the former, and an understanding of the former will go a long way toward helping you understand the latter (which you need to understand in order to pick up Cocoa, which is not the same thing as Objective-C).
The Beginning iPhone Development book is good, but it rather quickly moves to a point where it assumes prior knowledge that some folks just starting out are not going to have. To your list of recommendations, I would add Learn Objective-C on the Mac.
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vinniev said 3:05PM on 3-25-2009
Does anyone know of workshops for these kinds of things?
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Trevor said 8:02PM on 3-25-2009
Typo: "in it's 3rd edition" --> "in its 3rd edition"
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jayjay said 7:22PM on 3-25-2009
I've started a couple of times, trying to wrap my head around iPhone programming. This time I found this blog / page: http://icodeblog.com/. It has been absolutely invaluable to me. It's sort of tongue in cheek with more emphasis on explaining things so that the reader understands, instead of trying to be all guruish and technically dry and correct all the time.
I find myself following the tutorials and actually jumping ahead, writing out methods where I think they belong as I think they should be written. To me that proves the material works. This is THE resource for me and I suggest you check it out. My background is in PHP (years and years) and As3.
The next step for me will be this site: http://appsamuck.com. They are giving us one assignment per day for 30 days and they give some hints as well as the finished product as a downloadable project.
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garethharris said 7:25PM on 3-25-2009
Besides Hillegass, don't miss:
http://www.pragprog.com/
especially their intro video on the iPhone SDK,
including iPhone/Xcode/IB/Objc
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Dean said 1:47AM on 3-26-2009
Don't forget http://dblog.com.au, I published some nice articles on TouchXML, RSS, SQLite, etc.
Also I love the Prag Books!
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awolf said 7:56PM on 3-25-2009
Beginning iPhone Development by Mark/LaMarche is my top pick. The Hillegass book is also good.
Erica Sadun's book is poor. Steer clear.
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o0bix0o said 8:58PM on 3-25-2009
Another missed resource is www.napkincode.com they have some good walkthrus for people getting started.
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o0bix0o said 8:58PM on 3-25-2009
oops http://www.napkincode.com
njhamann said 10:32PM on 6-15-2009
If your looking for a simple way to get a iPhone application for your blog or business I found Rhino Apps really useful. http://www.RhinoApps.com. They take your RSS feed and create an iPhone application around it. You design it with your own custom colors and logos. Worth taking a look at.
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