Thank you for this excellent learning tool. I enjoyed the material and the style very much. I don’t know if there will be a 3rd edition of this book seeing as how most efforts seem to be transitioning towards SWIFT, but a “For the more curious” section on the BITWSE operations chapter would have been most welcomed. I understand the concepts but it is definitely a topic requiring more in depth coverage, (particularly for the ensuing ‘SpeakableSTrings’ challenge that follows) so I will supplement it with other material. For anyone finishing the book, I found that reading the 'Programming with Objective-C" PDF from apple (developer.apple.com/library/mac … 10-CH1-SW1) immediately after helped closed any gaps and solidified the knowledge from the book. It is only a 100 page document and a great read.
Now, onto my next journey with your iOS Programming book 4td Ed.
Well done fsck66. It is a remarkable book. I’m just beginning Part IV now. Just wondering, how long did you spend on the book from start to finish? I myself have spent 6 weeks in all to get to page 236, beginning of Part IV, which I think is reasonable given that I’ve had days off in that time, and most days didn’t have a ‘full’ day of study put in. I do feel like I will benefit from more revision though so I intend to read back through from the start (I do some revision as I go along too though to supplement).
Also, thanks for tip re. Apple pdf. I do think I might need something to bridge the gap between this book and the iOS Programming book also by BNR. I was thinking about getting the Kochan book as well as an additional resource/ reference and for the exercises.
Have you considered going through a C book as well, or do you already know C?
I started the book Sept of last year and finished it Jan this year, however, I did have about a month worth of work travel and no study so, in all I’d say it took me 3-4 months at a slow-moderate pace. My objective going into this was to master Objective-C as much as possible before diving into Cocoa and Cocoa touch development so I took my time with the chapters, I didnt just set out to finish the book fast, in fact, I sat and pondered what I learned on some of the chapters for a week or two in some cases to make sure I fully understood the concepts (sometimes advancing one or two chapters makes the previous one click - everybody’s learning style is different). I also read and experimented with the various classes using the Apple reference and guides, as a way to supplement the content as I went through the chapters. The book to me is just one more tool (a very good one at that), not just a means to an end.
As for previous C experience, not very much. I took C in college ages ago and do understand programming concepts but that’s the extent of it. I think the Obj-C book covers enough C to get you started, and as you will find as you progress through the book and learn the Foundation framework, you will continue to touch on C on/off since ObjC is just a superset of C and you will still rely on C types, structures, C-arrays, C functions, etc to accomplish many tasks (by the way, this continues on even on the iOS book - CoreGraphics for example, is a C based API and you use the API directly to accomplish a lot of stuff that hasnt been abstracted one layer up yet). lastly, remember the C is a procedural language so spending too much time on a C book may not help further your thinking in terms of classes and objects, which is where you really need to be in this context.
Thanks a lot. Sound advice I think regards going too far into C at this point. I’ll stay away for now at least and see how things progress! But will look into abstract data types in C as advised by ibex.
I’m thinking about getting Kochan’s book on Objective-C, just to supplement BNR and for the additional exercises and reference. I’ve just started back into Part IV of BNR so I need to think about my next steps.
