Learning Cocoa with Objective-C, 2nd Edition

Appendix C. Using the Foundation and Application Kit API References

When you install Apple’s developer tools on your system, a set of reference documents is installed with them into the /Developer/Documentation folder on your hard drive. This documentation covers all aspects of Mac OS X development, from building kernel extensions to Carbon and Cocoa development. For Cocoa development, the place to start looking is in the /Developer/Documentation/Cocoa folder, as shown in Figure C-1.

Figure C-1. The location of the Cocoa Developer Documentation

Simply double-click the CocoaTopics.html file, and your browser will open it, showing you the complete set of Cocoa documentation. While using this book, one of the most important parts of this documentation set will be the Objective-C Framework Reference, highlighted in Figure C-2.

Figure C-2. Cocoa Developer Documentation index page

The Objective-C Framework Reference consists of four primary sections:

Application Kit Reference

The authoritative and comprehensive reference to all of the classes, protocols, functions, and types in the Application Kit.

Foundation Reference

The authoritative and comprehensive reference to all of the classes, protocols, functions, and types in the Foundation Kit.

Application Kit Release Notes

An overview of the changes ...