Learn to write apps for some of today's hottest technologies, including the iPhone and iPad (using iOS), as well as the Mac (using OS X). It starts with Objective-C, the base language on which the native iOS software development kit (SDK) and the OS X are based. Learn Objective-C on the Mac: For OS X and iOS,* Second Edition updates a best selling book and *is an extensive, newly updated guide to Objective-C.

Objective-C is a powerful, object-oriented extension of C, making this update the perfect follow-up to Dave Mark’s bestselling Learn C on the Mac. Whether you’re an experienced C programmer or you’re coming from a different language such as C++ or Java, leading Mac experts Scott Knaster and Waqar Malik show how to harness the power of Objective-C in your apps!

• A complete course on the basics of Objective-C using Apple’s newest Xcode tools
• An introduction to object-oriented programming
• Comprehensive coverage of new topics like blocks, GCD, ARC, class extensions, as well as inheritance, composition, object initialization, categories, protocols, memory management, and organizing source files
• An introduction to building user interfaces using what is called the UIKit
• A primer for non-C programmers to get off the ground even faster

What you’ll learn

• Learn Objective-C programming, the gateway to programming your iPhone, iPad or Mac
• Write apps for the iOS and/or OS X interfaces, the cleanest user-interfaces around
• Understand variables and how to design your own data structures
• Work with the new Objective-C features now available in this update like blocks, automated reference counting (ARC) and class extensions
• Work with new tools available like Clang static analyzer and Grand Central Dispatch (GCD)
• Undertand UIKit and how to build simple user interfaces easily and effectively
• Explore using the latest Xcode

Who this book is for

For anyone wanting to learn to program native apps in iOS and/or OS X, including developers new to the iOS-based iPhone and iPad as well as OS X-based Mac computers. This book is for developers new to Objective-C, but who have some programming experience.

Table of Contents

1. Hello 
2. Extensions to C
3. Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
4. Inheritance
5. Composition
6. Source File Organization and Using Xcode 4
7. More About Xcode
8. A Quick Tour of the Foundation Kit
9. Memory Management and ARC
10. Object Initialization
11. Properties
12. Categories
13. Protocols
14. Blocks and Concurrency
15. Introduction to UIKit
16. Introduction to the Application Kit
17. File Loading and Saving
18. Key-Value Coding
19. Using the Static Analyzer
20. NSPredicate

Appendix: Coming from Other Languages

About the Author

Scott Knaster is a legendary Mac hacker and author of such bestselling books as Hacking Mac OS X Tiger and Macintosh Programming Secrets. His book How to Write Macintosh Software was required reading for Mac programmers for more than a decade.

Mark Dalrymple has been a Mac developer since 1985 and a Unix programmer since 1990. Over the years, he has worked on projects ranging from cross-platform development tool kits to high-performance web server software servicing hundreds of millions of hits per day, medical applications, and video products for Hollywood. He is the coauthor of Core Mac OS X and Unix Programming and Advanced Mac OS X Programming.

Waqar Malik is a UNIX nerd and Macintosh fan, and has been for long time. He has been helping developers with Cocoa and UNIX since the early days of OS X, and now with iOS. He consults, and writes Cocoa apps for his own company, Crimson Research.