Apress Beginning iPhone Development: Exporing the iPhone SDK
Are you a programmer looking for a new challenge? Does the thought of building your very own iPhone app make your heart race and your pulse quicken? If so, then Beginning iPhone Development is just the book for you.
Are you a programmer looking for a new challenge? Does the thought of building your very own iPhone app make your heart race and your pulse quicken? If so, then Beginning iPhone Development is just the book for you.
Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, Beginning iPhone Development offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone and iPod Touch programming.
The book starts with the basics, walking you through the process of downloading and installing Apple's free iPhone SDK, then stepping you though the creation of your first simple iPhone application. You'll move on from there, mastering all the iPhone interface elements that you've come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, sliders, etc.
You'll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. You'll master the art of table-building and learn how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You'll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using SQLite, iPhone's built-in database management system.
You'll learn how to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES. You'll add MultiTouch Gestural Support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the Camera, Photo Library, and Accelerometer. You'll master application preferences, learn how to localize your apps into other languages, and so much more.
Apple's iPhone SDK, this book, and your imagination are all you'll need to start building your very own best-selling iPhone applications.
You can discover more about this book, download source code, and find support forums at the book's companion site: www.iphonedevbook.com
Reviews
"People ask me again and again about how to get started in iPhone development, but I never had a very good answer for them until now. Dave and Jeff's book starts at the beginning in clear English, making sure you understand the fundamentals with many large illustrations. From there, they progress into key concepts such as the MVC pattern and ImageBuilder fundamentals. Additionally, I find myself flipping back to it as a reference guide—the plethora of code samples make it a must-have."
—Steve Demeter, Creator of "Trism" and owner of Demiforce LLC
"Beginning iPhone Development delivers a clear picture of the entire development process from registering as an iPhone developer through creation of complete applications. There is a wealth of examples illustrating each feature of the iPhone. The authors did an excellent job of demonstrating "best practice" coding methodology throughout the book. You would be hard pressed to find a better guide to creating software for the iPhone."
—Aaron Basil, iDev2.com
"Dave Mark has always been the king of Mac programming authors, and now he's proven to be the reigning king for books on iPhone development!
"Beginning iPhone Development is the definitive guide for iPhone development, and anyone aspiring to develop for the iPhone should get this invaluable reference."
—Brian Greenstone, President & CEO, Pangea Software, Inc.
"Jeff and Dave have done an exceptional job exploring the iPhone SDK. This book is far and away the single best resource for iPhone SDK development. Developers will latch on to this book and find it useful as they create the next great iPhone application. If you're a developer with an interest in this amazing new platform, this is a must buy."
—Chris Stewart, Founder, iPhoneDevSDK.com
"If you're planning on coding for the iPhone, start here. Dave and Jeff know their stuff and also know how to explain it. I was amazed how much stuff they cover, from Hello World through analyzing user gestures. Not only do they cover the fun stuff like playing with the camera, they cover real-world development issues like localization. I learned a huge amount from them"
—Mark Dalrymple, Co-founder, CocoaHeads, and Principal Author, Advanced Mac OS X Programming
"Starting with an overview of the technology, how to approach the device, the authors lead us straight into the heart of iPhone development. As you progress, you'll learn more about various layout engines and view managers, as well as the more meaty topics like accelerometer and GPS APIs. This book is a must-have for anyone interested in getting started quickly and efficiently with iPhone development!"
—Chris Pelsor, Manager, Tarantell:Hybrid
"All in all I was very surprised and pleased with the book. I've had the fortune of reading many technical books, and few do a great job of walking someone through the basics without making them feel like a dolt. It felt like every time I was stuck or unsure there was a tip, hint or paragraph which explained what was going on."
—Cory Foy, at Slashdot.org
Summary of Contents
Welcome to the Jungle
Appeasing the Tiki Gods
Handling Basic Interaction
More User Interface Fun
Autorotation and Autosizing
Multiview Applications
Tab Bars and Pickers
Introduction to Table Views
Navigation Controllers and Table Views
Application Settings and User Defaults
Basic Data Persistence
Drawing with Quartz and OpenGL
Taps, Touches, and Gestures
Where Am I? Finding Your Way with Core Location
Whee!
iPhone Camera and Photo Library
Application Localization
Where to Next?
About the Apress Beginning Series
The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!
Awesome book but wait for 3.0 edition Great book, but next edition covers SDK 3.0 and includes corrections. The eBook is already out, the paperback is coming early July 2009.
Excellent introduction, gets you up to speed quickly. I picked up this book after learning certain areas of the iPhone SDK from reading the documentation and working on an iPhone project for some time. All of the stuff that I didn't know was covered in this book in enough detail to fire up XCode and start coding right off the bat. Authors do a great job on covering most of the basics and explaining how things work behind the scenes (whenever such explanations are necessary). If you are just starting out or need to quickly get up to speed on certain APIs, this book would be a great investment.
Great book for getting started This is a great book for getting started with iPhone development. (NOTE: If you don't already know Objective-C programming you should first read through a different book.) The authors do a really good job of walking you through the steps of a task and slowly expecting you to be able to do it yourself. This really keeps your brain working and makes you really learn it.
Best book to learn iPhone development I have all the books on iPhone development plus every bit of video, documentation and sample code, and out of all that I can tell you that if you want to follow a "path of least resistance" in learning how to code, get this book just do it from cover to cover. Be sure to type it all in with your fingers so that it gets integrated into your real-world experience and sense memory.
The authors have clearly taken great pains to make sure you are introduced to what you need to know in an orderly fashion so there are no missing parts which will cause you confusion and wasted time later on. Don't skip around or end the book early or you'll miss the introduction of some essential knowledge.
Once you get this book, be sure to visit their super helpful website and mark up the book with the few corrections before you get started.
There is this book, and then there are all the others. Take it from someone who has studied the "art of the explanation" for a couple of decades. This book is first-class.
Good for a non-Apple person So far, I've found this book to be just the ticket in understanding how to program for the iPhone. I've got plenty of development experience in a variety of languages (primarily C# and VB, but also varying amounts of Perl, Ruby, Python, Java), but nothing specific to Apple, much less Objective C.
I'm following the examples. They all work so far (a definite plus). We'll see how the book holds up now that my phone has been updated to 3.0. I can't fault the book for that, though.
I think the book has been a very good introduction to the iPhone SDK.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
