by Aaron Hillegass.I have read the first seven chapters and it is well written and very engaging. I am surprised by how much I have learned and how much Cocoa can do in a small amount of written lines of code. This is due to the GUI programming environment provided by Interface Builder. In fact, I have been so impressed I am considering shifting over to Cocoa and Objective C and Xcode and Interface Builder as my main development platform (outside of work).
A problem I have with this is I do not know any of the Objective C frameworks and tools that support the other aspects of software development such as unit testing and automated builds. These are things I am sure I can pick up but they are areas I already know about when developing in C++.
I am in the middle of trying to decide what I really want to achieve from my personal software development projects. A few months ago the goal was to develop experience in the actual art of software development/construction from requirements through to release. I am concerned that throwing a completely new development platform into the mix will drag against the other learning I hope to do in requirements capture, design, test planning, and general software process.
The opposing force in the decision is the thought that I should just get in and develop as many applications as possible in order to improve my skills in the creation of the actual software product. From this point of view I would be better served to go with a tool that I enjoy using and can support rapid development. Objective C/Cocoa fits that bill nicely.
I still have some time to make the decision as I don't plan on getting to development until after my thesis has been submitted.
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2 comments:
I've got the second edition of that book, and I agree it is excellent. Aaron is also the guy who runs Big Nerd Ranch. A trip to learn Cocoa there would be amazing, if only it wasn't so damn far away!
Anyway, I've got another good book that talks about Objective-C in general that is good for the non-GUI type stuff. It's called "Programming in Objective-C" by Stephen Kochan. It to is really well written, interesting and well worth the money.
Yep. Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) was published literally last week. I have been flicking through it via my Safari Books Online subscription. However, my endearment with the Objective-C/Cocoa platform lies more on the Cocoa side than the Objective-C side at the moment.
Having said that though, I have been impressed with the Objective-C I have learned thus far. I had no idea how dynamic the language is and dynamic languages are becoming more appealing to me. Perhaps I should stop thinking about Objective-C as a replacement for C++ and start thinking about it as an addition to C++. I am beginning to see Objective-C as sitting somewhere between C++ and Python in my bag of tricks.
Another However, I've read Objective-C is inspired (in part) by Smalltalk. Ruby is also inspired (in part) by Smalltalk. If I go down the Objective-C route, perhaps I should also go down the Ruby route and replace Python (I do have the The Pick Axe Book on my bookshelf). Agghh!! It never ends.
Ruby is also inspired by Perl though.
And agreed, visiting Big Nerd Ranch would rate high on the awesomemeter.
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