Anyone with programming experience can learn how to write an iPhone app. But if you want to build a great app, there's a lot more to it than simple coding: you also need to know how design and market your creation. This easy-to-follow guide walks you through the entire process, from sketching out your idea to promoting the finished product.
Get to know the tools for developing your iPhone app
Design a great app before you start coding
Build a complex app with Xcode and Interface Builder
Decide how to brand your app-then beta-test that brand in the real world
Learn the inside scoop on how to get your app into the App Store
Promote your product, track sales, and build a strong customer following
Getting Started with Cocoa Touch
Chapter 1 Building Your First iPhone App
Getting the Tools
Exploring Your New Tools
Chapter 2 The Power of Brackets
Objective-C: The Nuts and Bolts for Your iPhone App
The Object of It All
Masses of Classes
The Methods Behind the Madness
Creating New Classes
Managing Memory
Methods of Class
Initializing Objects
Loops: For Better or For Worse
Your Exceptional Code
Selector Projector
Show Your id
Where to Go from Here
Chapter 3 Cocoa Touch: Putting Objective-C to Work
Get in Cocoa Touch
The Big Three: Models, Views, Controllers
Value Objects
Collections
Mutable Versus Immutable
Delegation and Data Sources
Targets and Actions
Notifications
Singletons
Where to Go from Here
Chapter 4 Design Tools: Building a Better Flashlight
Craig Hockenberry has been working with images and software for over 30 years. He is currently a principal at the Iconfactory, a company that has been changing the face of the computer desktop since 1996. Their work includes the design & production of icons for Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and other leading software companies.
He's also responsible for the secret control panels at Icon Factory, a website that gives away about 2 terabytes of pixels every month, and keeps many fellow designers informed and entertained.
Craig also loves writing cool software, and thinks that Cocoa and Quartz (for the desktop and iPhone) and Ruby and Rails (for the Web) are the greatest things since sliced bread.
In past lives, Craig has built robots, processed satellite imagery, and created effects filters for Photoshop.
Comments about O'Reilly Media iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual:
This book is a real asset for every developer who knows how to code but is new to iOS development. It starts with the very basics (which I could've skipped as I played with the iOS SDK and simulator before) and helps you to be ready to code in no time.
Craig Hockenberry guides the reader through all steps which are necessary to get an app into the app store. Other authors write very technical manuals (which are great if you need specific knowledge) but lack the overall picture. This is where Hockenberry scores with his invaluable overview.
This book won't make a developer out of you, it will help a developer become an iOS developer with an app in the app store.
12/28/2010
(5 of 17 customers found this review helpful)
1.0
Not so easy as it seems
By ukpauly
from UK
Pros
Cons
Difficult to understand
Not comprehensive enough
Best Uses
Intermediate
Comments about O'Reilly Media iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual:
I haven't programmed for 30 years so was delighted when I trialled chapter one. It was so well explained and illustrated that I felt I would be able to follow the rest of the book, so bought it and downloaded it.
Oh dear. 3 pages into Chapter 2 I was totally lost. It started with the example below saying you'll immediately be comfortable. But I wasn't. I sort-of got it, but there is no explanation of the syntax, symbols used etc and the rest of the book just carried on like that.
If you are used to object-oriented programming, this might be fine, but for me I expected the same level of explanation as was in chapter 1.
"Take a look at the following Objective-C code. You'll immediately feel comfortable with the familiar expressions and control structures you've used in other languages: int i; for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) { // check for even and odd values if ((i % 2) == 0) [label setTitle:@″Even″]; else [label setTitle:@″Odd″]; }"
8/2/2010
(7 of 7 customers found this review helpful)
4.0
Great overview of the whole iPhone dev p
By ueberhund
from Salt Lake City, UT
About Me Developer
Pros
Accurate
Easy to understand
Well-written
Cons
Too basic
Best Uses
Novice
Student
Comments about O'Reilly Media iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual:
This is a great book for new iPhone application developers looking for a good place to get started. Even if you're familiar with C or C++, Objective C takes a little bit of getting used to. This book takes the reader through the entire development lifecycle of an iPhone application—from the very beginning with installing Xcode and the iPhone SDK, through the end with getting your application released in the App Store.
While the book is not designed to be comprehensive, it won't be the reference that intermediate or advanced iPhone developers will be looking for. However, for those just getting started, it's just right. After showing how to configure the Xcode environment, the author goes through the basics of Objective C and the ins and outs of the language. The author proceeds through the process of how great iPhone apps are designed. Finally, the author shows how to submit your application to the iTunes store and what to expect out of the process. You won't find a lot of coding examples, aside from the Objective C introduction. In other words, there aren't any "how-to's" in this book, which is fine, since much of that can be retrieved online.
Where I really felt this book provided value was in the overall discussion of how to begin, design, and submit your application. There aren't a lot of good references out there which show the whole process, and I found this book to be one of the best. I'd recommend this book to developers who want to get started with iPhone development—especially those developers who just installed Xcode and are asking "now what?".
