Objective-C Pocket Reference | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrew Duncan
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $9.95
Buy New: $5.25
You Save: $4.70 (47%)
New (22) Used (6) from $5.14
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 61977
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 128
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7 x 4.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0596004230
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.133
EAN: 9780596004231
ASIN: 0596004230
Publication Date: December 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Objective-C is an exciting and dynamic approach to ibased object-oriented programming; it's the approach adopted by Apple as the foundation for programming under Mac OS X, a Unix-based operating system gaining wide acceptance among programmers and other technologists. Objective-C is easy to learn and has a simple elegance that is a welcome breath of fresh air after the abstruse and confusing C++. To help you master the fundamentals of this language, you'll want to keep the "Objective-C Pocket Reference" close at hand. This small book contains a wealth of valuable information to speed you over the learning curve. In this pocket reference, author Andrew Duncan provides a quick and concise introduction to Objective-C for the experienced programmer. In addition to covering the essentials of Objective-C syntax, Andrew also covers important faces of the language such as memory management, the Objective-C runtime, dynamic loading, distributed objects, and exception handling. O'Reilly's Pocket References have become a favorite among programmers everywhere. By providing important details in a succinct, well-organized format, these handy books deliver just what you need to complete the task at hand. When you've reached a sticking point in your work and need to get to a solution quickly, the new "Objective-C Pocket Reference" is the book you'll want to have.
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 Best quick refference for Objective-C October 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just about every book on Objective-C that you can find. Mainly because I love books. The two that I find most helpfull as a non-programmer who is self-teaching are this little gem and 'Programming in Objective-C'. What I like about this book is that it shows the basic form and structure used in ObjC with very little clutter. It is not a book to learn from so much as a book to distill concepts into managable bites. Armed with this book and Programming in Objective-C will get you well on your way to programming in C, ObjC, Cocoa, and GNUstep (which is mainly what I am learning). All the other books get you deeper in the quagmire, yet for the most part assume that you the knowledge covered in these two books. This is the 'Ah Ha, now I see!' book when you have basic knowledge and need to get right to the point. I sometimes forget to look here first, usually to my irritation. Just buy it.
Also note that I am a big fan of all the 'in a nutshell' books as secondary refferences.
 This book has holes and needs edits September 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm attacking Objective-C from the perspective of a C# and former VB and Java developer, with some knowledge of C as well. I'm trying to actually read through the book as a fast jump-start into understanding the syntax, and although it does well for this, I found this book a bit frustrating at times. It leaves a few fundamental terms unexplained and then carries on using them as though the reader understands.
For example, what are namespaces in the context of Objective-C? In C#, they are simply explicitly declared container names. In Java, they are the same but also a file system hierarchy. In C, AFAIK, namespaces don't exist. But the book frequently says things like "classes are in the global namespace" and "categories are in their own namespace so they can have the same name as classes". What are namespaces in Obj-C? How on earth do you work with these namespaces??
Code examples from one to the next have nothing to do with the previous, so as you learn a new keyword, and you see a one-line syntax example, you have no other code to see it in context.. such as, hello, how on earth would I *use* that after invoking or declaring it?
It also failed to explain "field sections". One of the reasons I BOUGHT the book was because I didn't understand why some things are declared in braces in the interface declaration, and some things are not, but are still before @end. The book said nothing about these braces and what they're containing. It just said, oh hey, there's no semicolon after @end. (Over and over again, needlessly.) I only figured it out by inference--and am still not sure if I'm right--when I came across the "Category" sample code and where in sample code there's often an area in braces with fields there was instead the comment, "// No field section." Ah. So I guess whatever goes in braces is supposed to be fields.
The book is also obsolete. Objective-C 2.0 has since been released, and this book doesn't cover that. It's dated 2003.
So the book doesn't do a good job as a syntax tutorial like I hoped. But I'll admit that it came really, really close. If the book had these missing components, it would only be about 10-15% thicker I imagine, though, but I don't feel that there's any excuse as it's not just small, it's thin.
An excellent intro to Obj-C for those who need the depth May 9, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Probably the best book to read to learn Objective-C, if Apple's PDF on the language is not enough for you. Covers Objective-C both from Cocoa and non-Cocoa perspectives. Try Apple's PDF first, and if it's not enough to let you jump into one of the Cocoa programming books (which all mostly assume knowledge of C and Objective-C), then this book is recommended.
Handy, well written Objective-C Reference! November 14, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Andrew Duncan's Objective-C Pocket Reference is just the book that budding Cocoa programmers should have on their desk. It is well written, well indexed, and succinct enough to read in an evening if desired.After reading it cover to cover, I think this will be a valuable resource for looking up any Objective-C related questions I have. Note, you should have an understanding of C before trying to read this book. Also - it will probably make more sense to you if you already have some experience with Cocoa. This is a quick reference - probably not the best way to learn the language. However, the book contains a list at the end which recommends other books and websites which are more thorough. I'd say it's well worth the cost.
A great resource for digging deeper into Objective-C September 29, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
O'Reilly's OBJECTIVE-C POCKET REFERENCE follows in its line of slim booklets designed for quick reference while at the computer. I found it a very helpful book.While titled "a pocket reference", the book is not something that should be put on the shelf right away and merely consulted from time to time. For a beginning Objective-C programmer, reading the book straight-through can be very enlightening. The basics of Obj-C are easy to grasp, and an Obj-C beginner can immediately start constructing solid applications without knowing about categories, protocols, or root objects. But O'Reilly's book is the best place to start becoming familiar with these obscure topics that might just help one solve a particularly tricky problem. I have only a few complaints about the book. One is that it talks about the #import preprocessor directive, but nowhere does it mention the advantages of using #ifndef guards. Another problem is that in some parts it is Cocoa-specific; I would have preferred that it concentrate on the OpenStep standard in general so that other OpenStep implementations might not be left out (but the book does occasionally mention GNUstep, which is great). O'Reilly proves itself the best publisher for developers again with this book, and any Objective-C programmer should invest in it.
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