Preface
I’m not sure if this is the first book you’ve picked up to learn Cocoa, but I think it’s the one that will get you started writing apps. I started teaching Cocoa and Objective-C in 2004, and I have worked with a lot of people who wanted to learn how to write software so that they could get their ideas onto the screen. But there’s a problem.
There are two kinds of people who want to learn programming. Those in the first group are wired for the algorithmic mindset; they’re interested in data and the inner workings of things for their own sake. When they see a dog catch a Frisbee, they think of the calculations the dog does to catch it. Programming is a natural extension of this mindset. My guess is around five percent of the population is actually built this way.
The second (much larger) group has ideas for software that they desperately want to make real. They’re often graphic or interaction designers. You probably have ideas about a fantastic Mac, iPhone, or iPad app that you want to create, but you don’t have a million dollars to hire an engineering staff. It’s very likely that you even like programming and data in addition to several other interests, but you don’t see everything in terms of algorithms.
The problem is that most technical books are written by and for people in the first group. That means most of the material is being created for those who need the least help. As a result, a lot of books on programming go unread. In fact, there’s this unspoken honor given to ...