Cocoa Programming for OS X: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

<>Covering the bulk of what you need to know to develop full-featured applications for OS X, this edition is updated for OS X Yosemite (10.10),  Xcode 6, and Swift. Written in an engaging tutorial style and class-tested for clarity and accuracy, it is an invaluable resource for any Mac programmer. The authors introduce the two most commonly used Mac developer tools: Xcode and Instruments. They also cover the Swift language, basic application architecture, and the major design patterns of Cocoa. Examples are illustrated with exemplary code, written in the idioms of the Cocoa community, to show you how Mac programs should be written.

 

After reading this book, you will know enough to understand and utilize Apple’s online documentation for your own unique needs. And you will know enough to write your own stylish code.

 

This edition was written for Xcode 6.3 and Swift 1.2. At WWDC 2015, Apple announced Xcode 7 and Swift 2, both of which introduce significant updates that (along with some changes to Cocoa for OS X 10.11) affect some of the exercises in this book. We have prepared a companion guide listing the changes needed to use Xcode 7 to work through the exercises in the book; it is available at https://github.com/bignerdranch/cocoa-programming-for-osx-5e/blob/master/Swift2.md.

Aaron Hillegass, a former employee at NeXT and Apple, has nearly two decades experience programming and teaching Objective-C, Cocoa, and, more recently, iOS. Aaron is co-author of Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide and iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide. In 2001, Aaron founded Big Nerd Ranch and began developing intensive courses that teach programming in a focused, distraction-free environment. Big Nerd Ranch now offers courses around the world as well as consulting and software development.

Adam Preble learned Cocoa programming from the first edition of this book and after ten years in the software industry, joined Big Nerd Ranch to write Mac and iOS software as a consultant. He presently leads engineering at Big Nerd Ranch and steals away time for Cocoa programming and for teaching the Cocoa bootcamp course, on which this book is based.

Nate Chandler is an instructor and senior software engineer at Big Nerd Ranch, where he helps maintain the Cocoa bootcamp course materials. Nate studied mathematics at the New College of Florida and applies the logical rigor he learned in that arena to his programming. An avid C++ enthusiast, Nate reads draft feature proposals for the standard as often as he can.