Chapter 1. A Brief Tour of Cocoa Development
In This Chapter
Programming for Mac OS X
Discovering the Cocoa development process
Exploring the tools for programming Cocoa applications
These are exciting times for Macintosh users. When Apple unleashed Mac OS X upon the world, it ushered in a new era of computing for the Mac faithful. Besides the rock-solid stability of UNIX, Mac OS X offered functionality and features that Mac users could have only dreamt of a few years earlier. Along with this great operating system, Apple saw fit to remember Macintosh developers and have done so ever since. Principal among Apple's achievements is Cocoa, the subject of this book. This chapter introduces you to the world of Mac OS X programming and, in particular, Cocoa programming.
Mac OS X Is a Programmer's Dream
Macintosh programming has never been as easy or as accessible as it is with Mac OS X. For starters, Apple, the friendly folks that they are, thought it'd be a great idea to give away the development tools. For free. Apple provides the Xcode Developer Tools as a free download on the Apple Developer Connection Web site. By installing the Xcode Developer Tools download, you instantly gain access to a complete collection of tools, utilities, documentations, and example source codes to get you started programming for the Mac OS. In the past, a developer bundle this comprehensive would have cost hundreds of dollars. Today, Apple provides it for no additional charge.
Tip
Some older versions of Mac OS ...
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