Hillegass 2nd and 3rd Editions. Which one?
Ok, so I reached a point I really needed to read the book. So I went in search of Aaron's book, but I found a problem. I am on an older mac running 10.4.11, and am not going to upgrade just yet, that is a whole 'nother discussion. Regardless, I saw the 2nd edition covered OS X 10.3. And the 3rd edition covers 10.4-10.5. Huh? They are different though. The garbage collection was introduced in 10.5 I think, also I think Xcode is set up different, Interface builder is different. Also didn't Obj-c go to Obj-c2?
I am new so maybe those things don't really affect me. I believe Garbage collection is optional, and XCode and Interface Builder look to me like they are just different on the surface and basically the same.
Could anyone tell me which version I need to use?
Todd
Hi Todd
I have both editions of the book. I have a 6 year old PPC Powerbook 17" machine running Tiger and a 24" iMac running Snow Leopard (and it has a Leopard partition). I keep all three systems available to support my opensource activities.
I bought the second edition of the book about 3 years ago and that's fine for Tiger. XCode 3 brought many enhancements to Cocoa and in particular a complete rewrite of Interface Builder. The 3rd edition of Aaron's book is for XCode 3. All of this arrived with Leopard in the fall (autumn) of 2007.
Obj/C did indeed advance to Obj/C 2.0 with XCode 3. The "big new thing" in 2.0 is garbage collection. It also brought the property keyword and some other stuff. And I believe the Mac's 64bit UI support is only available via cocoa (carbon has not been promoted to 64 bit). If you want to write code for the iPhone (or iPad), the garbage collector is not available on that platform.
However, I agree however that it is 'basically the same'. Having the book that matches the software does lower the pain involved in figuring out this stuff. I think I said before to you that I think it's rather difficult to learn cocoa and I'm not sure I can really explain why - it's just a feeling I have about it. For sure I've often seen folks write things like "you have no hope of learning cocoa without a good book". And many believe Aaron's book is the best available. I highly encourage you to have the edition for your version of XCode.
Thank you for the offer, but alas, I am in the USA. I will purchase the book online, it will be well worth the money, and someday my poor little iMac will just not be enough and I will purchase a new Mac. But I tend to do with what I have, and will likely continue until I am no more. I suspected 2nd edition was the one I needed. But the preface in the 3rd mentions os x 10.4 and was confused. Thank you for the clarification.
Todd
Todd
OK. I'm in California. I'll mail you the book if you wish. However I might go to England on family business next week.
The second edition is such an end-of-life book that it's rather expensive for what it is. Maybe you can get a second hand copy from Amazon. I think the 3rd Edition is very good value. If you get a new machine, spend $50 on the book - it's worth it.
I have to admit to lusting after an 27" iMac.
Shoot, missed this post. I assumed you were in the U.K. and found a copy on eBay. And when I do get a new machine I will certainly get the 3rd edition.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....27".
Todd
lusting and drooling ala Homer Simpson.
Todd
i dont realy like th book it.
im was looking for a book that show you code and explains what that code does and how you minepulate it to do different stuff. maybe i have read enough of the 3rd but i have a gut feeling of not liking it. think god i didnt waste money.
ToddI have to admit to lusting after an 27" iMac.
-clanmills
try lusting over a $15,000 Mac Pro.
oh yeah. and hook like 4 of em together.
ill have a mini supercomputer
32 GB ram * 4
8 cores * 4
5 1TB HDD *4
4 nvidia GPU *4
$60,000 supercomputer.
wow now if i had the money i woud really do this :)
I agree a bit with you. He started out explaining what each line of code did and why it did it and kind of fizzles out on the descriptions. However, I have learned a ton of stuff I would not have learned otherwise. Even if you don't think you are learning anything...you very well may be learning something. If you find a better book or site or whatever, with better line by line commentary I would be very interested.
Todd
