Disclosure: we get a lot of technical books sent to us from publishers. We tend to review the ones that we like and recommend. Occasionally when a book is truly horrible, we’ll sound the alarm. But if they’re mediocre, we’ll just let them fall in the forest without a sound.
It’s official: the contest is over. The best getting-started-developing-iPhone-applications book is iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Joe Conway and Aaron Hillegass. I really wish I had had this book in hand when I was relearning Objective C and coming up to speed with the iPhone SDK.
This is a book that takes me back to the halcyon days of the early O’Reilly books, when authors weren’t just churning out chapters to capitalize on the buzz of some new technologies. This book has the voice of a patient and committed teacher trying to do the best by their students.
First the marks against this book:
- It doesn’t cover iOS 4.x (My advice is to read this book, then pick up the changes in iOS4 on your own.)
- Doesn’t cover OpenGL ES — it’s too big of a topic for a single chapter and deserves a book of it’s own
- Doesn’t cover unit testing
Both of the first two cons are forgivable, given first when the book was written and published (4/23/2010) and second, that OpenGL ES is truly a huge topic. The last one — no coverage of unit testing — is a little disappointing, but there are decent tutorials and guides for how to do unit testing in the iPhone SDK. And that’s it as far as the negatives go.
What’s Good
There are other iPhone programming books that walk you through a series of tutorial projects. But they all seem breathless, trying to throw a lot of information into small chapters. This is where the Big Nerd book’s origins as an outgrowth of a training course become clear. This book is the opposite of breathless. It introduces information a little bit at a time and takes the time to explain the essential details, the likely points of confusion in clear and simple language.
The three chapters on Objective-C, memory management and the Delegate pattern alone are worth the price of the book. But it doesn’t stop there. Aside from the aforementioned OpenGL, it covers every nook and cranny of the SDK — controls, accelerometer, notification, the camera, persistance, multi-touch and gestures, animation, audio and video, networking, integration with other applications, localization, iPad porting, etc.
Each topic is presented in the same patient style, and you build useful applications along the way that could become the templates for your own future applications.
So, my advice to you is to pick up this sweet sweet book and turn yourself into an iPhone developer
Great review of a great book. I too feel it is the best book out there. I have been diligently working through the book and expect to complete it in the next few days. The format is perfect for the serious programming student who wants to not just know “a way” to accomplish a task in an iOS app, but to understand the “how and why” of Cocoa Touch. Kudos to the Big Nerd Ranch crew!
Thanks for the review. I agree, it’s the clearest of the 4 or 5 iOS resources I’ve looked at thus far. The clarity and explanations are most welcome.
I purchased this book to start learning iPhone OS, I knew C++ and Java mainly, so Objective-C was somewhat new to me. After reading this book I have started making apps, specifically an app for my University. Without this book I would still be lost. I looked at online tutorials and other books, NONE come close to this book. It’s fun to read, and their method of teaching is phenomenal. I highly recommend this book to anyone beginning iPhone programming!
Whenever I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, this is the writing/instructional style I aspire to. A lofty goal, perhaps, because Aaron and Joe do it so well … but very worthwhile!
To those who haven’t read it yet: Yes, it’s that good. Just get it. You’ll thank yourself later.