Learn C on the Mac (Learn Series)

When it comes to technical books, Apress makes some of my favorite and most useful books. Being in IT, and being a proud Mac owner and Snow Leopard user for about a year now, I figured I should start learning more about developing for Mac's, so I purchased Learn C on the Mac. When purchasing this book, we must keep in mind that just learning C will not allow us to create the coolest looking applications and software for OS X. C is what C , the more popular Java, and what Objective-C are based on. The goal of this book is teach us the basic fundamentals that prepare us for C , Objective-C or Java, and to allow us to feel comfortable with Xcode (Xcode is where we code, it's like Visual Studio or Eclipse for the Mac).

For the beginner, this book is perfect, as the author clearly states that to his surprise, he's found children and soccer moms are interested in learning how to code - so it should be really easy to follow. For those that already know VB and C#, the book will be even easier to follow along, and you'll learn the basics of developing for the Mac or iPhone. Overall, this book is an intro to programing (regardless of which language or platform you plan to use) and a guide to using Xcode for programing.

Anything exercises the book has us do, are all ran and debugged in Xcode. Once you finish this book, you'll be able to understand Learn Objective-C on the Mac, also by Apress. Objective-C, based on C (this book), is what Mac's actually run on, and allows for scrolling, menu's, etc... The last step, after understanding Objective C, is to decide what you want to do. Do you want to develop for the Mac or the iPhone? If you choose Mac, Learn Cocoa on the Mac by Apress would be the right book, if you choose to learn mobile Cocoa instead, for the iPhone, you would want Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Apress too. Cocoa would be what we really need to learn to be able and create iPhone applications and software as we know it today.

Anyways, I don't think it'll matter if your a beginner, or already a developer (non C or Java), you will likely learn from this book. Sure, Java developers might be able to review too, and learn how to use Xcode, but if your already developing in C, Java you might be ready to move on to Objective-C. Have fun learning, and remember, this is not a PC only world anymore!!