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Beginning iOS 5 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK

David Mark, Jack Nutting, Jeff LaMarche · 3 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "Beginning iOS 5 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK" by David Mark, Jack Nutting, Jeff LaMarche.
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Amazon Summary
The team that brought you the bestselling Beginning iPhone 4 Development is back again for Beginning iOS 5 Development, bringing this definitive guide up-to-date with Apple's latest and greatest iOS SDK, as well as with the latest version of Xcode. There's coverage of brand new technologies, with chapters on storyboards and iCloud, for example, as well as significant updates to existing chapters to bring them in line with all the changes that came with the iOS 5 SDK. You'll have everything you need to create your very own apps for the latest iOS devices, including the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and the latest iPod touch. Every single sample program in the book has been rebuilt from scratch using Xcode 4.2 and the latest iOS 5-specific project templates and designed to take advantage of the latest Xcode features. Assuming only a minimal working knowledge of Objective-C, and written in a friendly, easy-to-follow style, Beginning iOS 5 Development offers a complete soup-to-nuts course in iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch programming. The book starts with the basics, walking through the process of downloading and installing Xcode and the iOS 5 SDK, and then guides you though the creation of your first simple application. From there, you'll learn how to integrate all the interface elements Apple touch users have come to know and love, such as buttons, switches, pickers, toolbars, and sliders. You'll master a variety of design patterns, from the simplest single view to complex hierarchical drill-downs. The confusing art of table building will be demystified, and you'll learn how to save your data using the iPhone file system. You'll also learn how to save and retrieve your data using a variety of persistence techniques, including Core Data and SQLite. And there's much more! You'll learn to draw using Quartz 2D and OpenGL ES, add multitouch gestural support (pinches and swipes) to your applications, and work with the camera, photo library, accelerometer, and built-in GPS. You'll discover the fine points of application preferences and learn how to localize your apps for multiple languages. The iOS 5 update to the bestselling and most recommended book for Cocoa touch developers Packed full of tricks, techniques, and enthusiasm for the new SDK from a developer perspective Written in an accessible, easy-to-follow style
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
Aug 12, 2012 · GuiA on Ask HN: Good iOS Tutorials?
I'm a big fan of books.

I found this one very useful to get started: http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iOS-Development-Exploring-SD...

Hi, I am in a similar position as you, and have sought help in much the same way. The most common responses I got were:

Programming in Objective-C - Kochan (http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-4th-Developers...) I am currently halfway through this book, it is primarily focused on the actual Objective-C language, and almost nothing on actual iOS/Cocoa Development (some small bits in the later chapters). I was recommended this to learn the underlying language before jumping in, very enjoyable so far, the exercises are great.

I have heard good things about both Nerd Ranch books (http://www.amazon.com/iOS-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/...) and will likely use that for introduction to Cocoa and iOS SDK.

Originally I planned on using "Beginning iOS 5 Development" from Apress as the iOS SDK learning book (http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iOS-Development-Exploring-SD...), but it seems that the reviews are quite low compared to previous versions.

Finally, if you enjoy learning through video, the Stanford course is very highly recommended, through iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/ipad-iphone-application-...). I found them very useful to start with, but I felt I wasn't learning much syntax through the videos, the talking portions are very in depth, but the coding portions are very quick (and went over my head due to not knowing Objective-C!). I will likely return to these when I have a working understanding of Objective-C.

(Most of these tips from my understanding of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3403049/best-book-resourc... and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1939/how-to-articles-for-...)

PopaL
Kochan seems OK.

I've seen the Objective-C book from The Big Nerd Ranch and 50% of the book is about basic C. This is not appealing to me, obviously if you know nothing about C (or you have limited experience) this could be a good match for you.

andre3k1
Then skip the intro to Objective-C textbook, instead dive right into iOS development. Big Nerd Ranch's iOS Programming textbook offers three chapters worth of an introduction to Objective-C. The authors primarily talk about using the Cocoa Touch framework to write native apps in Xcode, which is what you want to do?
donmcc
I'm a big fan of Erica Sadun's "iOS 5 Developers Cookbook" http://www.amazon.com/The-iOS-Developers-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B... She starts off showing you how an iOS app works from main() on up, which gave me an understanding of how some of the "magical" parts of iOS work, like nib loading. The bulk of the book is a decent cookbook that you can cherry pick from as needed.

If you've worked with other event-driven GUI frameworks in the past, check out Sadun's book.

The Stanford videos are great. Another good resource for screencasts is http://nsscreencast.com/

Also if you're looking for a good book about iOS http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1430236051/ref=redir_mdp_mobil...

For learning the ins and out of objective c I've heard this is a good book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321706285

Good luck!

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