Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Beginning Mac OS X Programming

Every Mac OS X system comes with all the essentials required for programming: free development tools, resources, and utilities. However, finding the place to begin may be challenging, especially if you have no prior development knowledge. This comprehensive guide offers you an ideal starting point to writing programs on Mac OS X, with coverage of the latest release - 1.4 "Tiger."

With its hands-on approach, the book examines a particular element and then presents step-by-step instructions that walk you through how to use that element when programming. You'll quickly learn how to efficiently start writing programs on Mac OS X using languages such as C, Objective-C(r), and AppleScript(r), technologies such as Carbon(r) and Cocoa(r), and other Unix tools. In addition, you'll discover techniques for incorporating the languages in order to create seamless applications. All the while, you can follow along on your own system so that you'll be prepared to apply your new Mac OS X skills to real-world projects.

What you will learn from this book

• The major role the new Xcode plays in streamlining Mac OS X development
• The process for designing a graphical user interface on Mac OS X that conforms to Apple's guidelines
• How to write programs in the C and Objective-C programming languages
• The various scripting languages available on the Mac OS X system and what tasks each one is best suited to perform
• How to write shell scripts that interact with pre-installed command-line tools

Who this book is for

This book is for novice programmers who want to get started writing programs that run on Mac OS X. Experienced programmers who are new to the Mac will also find this book to be a useful overview of the Mac development environment.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

Michael Trent has been programming in Objective-C since1997 and programming Macs since well before that. He is a regular contributor to Steven Frank’s www.cocoadev.com website, technical reviewer for numerous books and magazine articles, and occasional dabbler in Mac OS X open source projects. Currently, he is using Objective-C and Apple Computer’s Cocoa frameworks to build professional and consumer applications for Mac OS X. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Beloit College of Beloit, Wisconsin. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his family.

Drew McCormack has a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics and works as a computational scientist in the Theoretical Chemistry group at the Free University in Amsterdam. He is involved in developing the Quantum Chemistry software ADF (www.scm.com), which is run the world over on computers ranging from desktop Macs to massive supercomputers. He programs regularly in Python, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, and Bash, and in his spare time develops the Cocoa financial software Trade Strategist (www.trade-strategist.com). Drew maintains the Maniacal Extent website—a reference to the chaotic dimension, time—which details his various interests and activities (www.maniacalextent.com).