Beginner Programming Books For OS X Users

[Twist]

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.

 

[Buckey]

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.

 

[retrotron]

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.

 

[RacerX]

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.

 

[Oscar Castillo]

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.