If you are interested in learning how to program Objective-C and Cocoa on the Mac using Xcode and Interface Builder, you may want to check out a new book, called Beginning Mac Programming, which was just released.
I have already read 1/3 of the book and it really starts you from scratch. It teaches you the basics of Object-Oriented Programming ( OOP ) and Objective-C in a very easy manner while you get comfortable with the Apple Development Tools, like Xcode and Interface Builder.
Of course, since iPhone and iPad Development is also done using these familiar development tools as well as Objective-C, all of the skills you learn for developing Mac OS X Applications can be used to develop iPhone and iPad Applications. For those completely new to developing on the Mac, this may just be the place to start as opposed to jumping into a book dedicated to iPhone and iPad Development, which usually assumes some basics of Objective-C and Cocoa as well as a solid understanding of Xcode and Interface Builder.
If you already have a solid foundation on OOP, you will breeze through the initial chapters aside from the parts focuing on Xcode and Interface Builder. And, if you are familiar with C or C#, a lot of the code in Objective-C will be familiar to you with just a few changes in syntax. I am pleasantly surprised how quickly I am able to grasp the information given years of OOP and C# development as a Microsoft .NET Developer.
Although I have a solid background of OOP development, I am completely new to Xcode, Interface Builder, and Objective-C so Beginning Mac Programming felt like a great place to start.
You can learn more about the book as well as read reviews on Amazon.
In addition to this book, I also pre-ordered iPhone and iPad in Action
, which will be a nice step after finishing Beginning Mac Programming.
David Hayden