# Beginner Programming Books For OS X Users



## Twist (May 19, 2004)

I am just wondering if there are any good books that teach programming in C and C++ for semi-beginners on the Mac? I want to learn C with the eventual goal of moving on to cocoa. Any books that cover Project Builder or Xcode would be nice but I would like for them to also cover using gcc. Also no Dummies type books, I know programming basics just not the languages. I have programmed a couple of apps in REALbasic, I took a PASCAL class a few years ago, and I am a competent PHP coder.


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## Buckey (May 25, 2004)

I researched that very question last month and here is what I came up with:

 	 "The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition"
 By Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie (Prentice Hall)
 ISBN: 0131103628 274 pages, $40.00
	 	 "Practical C Programming, 3rd Edition"
 By Steve Oualline (O'Reilly Publishing)
 ISBN: 1-56592-306-5 451 pages, $34.95

Programming in Objective-C

buy all 3

I have Practical C and Programming in Objective C and both seem good so far.  I come from a Fortran and APL programming background but that was nearly 20 years ago.

I also came across some interesting info on Appleinsider.com today.  Xcode may include C#.  The thought is to position the Mac as the developer's platform of choice.  Develop on a Mac and run everywhere plus bring a ton of developers to the Mac.  Plus there is a lot of C# code out there that could be easily compiled for Mac use.


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## retrotron (May 29, 2004)

I'm a PHP programmer too, but I don't know much C. I found _Programming in Objective-C_ very helpful to get going with Cocoa. Most books I've looked at move way too quickly over the Obj-C part, leaving me in the dark, but this book explained Obj-C well for me. In particular, it explains Obj-C without requiring any basis in C. It well explains C code and concepts used in Obj-C and Cocoa and leaves out stuff which isn't used by Obj-C and Cocoa. If I remember right, though, it does go into the C code underlying the Obj-C stuff if you're interested. Knowing C is very helpful I'm sure, but it doesn't seem necessary for Obj-C, so if you're goal is Cocoa, maybe just learn the C that you need for Obj-C now and go back to C later when/if you need it? Most of the C stuff you need for Cocoa you probably know from PHP. In any case, the book also covers using gcc for Objective-C, and it is fairly platform unspecific, though it discusses Project Builder/Xcode too. I went through most of what I read in the book using the gcc and the command line. Do you do any Object Oriented stuff with PHP, btw? That will be very helpful if so.


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## RacerX (May 29, 2004)

Well, Stepwise has been the one of the best (and by far the oldest) places to go for help with development. Their Cocoa Starting Point page is a great place to get started.


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## Oscar Castillo (May 30, 2004)

Twist said:
			
		

> I am just wondering if there are any good books that teach programming in C and C++ for semi-beginners on the Mac? I want to learn C with the eventual goal of moving on to cocoa. Any books that cover Project Builder or Xcode would be nice but I would like for them to also cover using gcc. Also no Dummies type books, I know programming basics just not the languages. I have programmed a couple of apps in REALbasic, I took a PASCAL class a few years ago, and I am a competent PHP coder.



I have to agree with retrotron, Programming in Objective-C is the best and only Objective-C book I have come across that explains it all.  The only problem now is that the Cocoa books are a bit outdated if you are using the new Xcode dev tools.


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