Mac OS X Programming

Mac OS X Programming assumes nothing on the part of its reader, other than common sense and an interest in learning how to use Carbon to write software applications for modern Macintosh computers. Therefore, it'll serve you well if you've chosen Mac OS X as the operating system under which you'll take your first steps as a novice programmer. You'll also find this book moderately handy if you're already a Mac programmer and want a gentle introduction to Cocoa, the new programming facilities that Mac OS X exposes. Even if you've used your experience to figure out Cocoa on your own, you'll probably like Dan Parks Sydow's coverage of porting old code to the new environment, and of new multimedia programming capabilities.

It's in explaining novice-level material that Sydow shines most. He starts, as is traditional, with a "Hello World" application that introduces Project Builder, Interface Builder, and nib resource files. He combines Carbon source code listings with lots of text and a fair number of screen shots, and though there's no companion CD-ROM, you can download the code from the Web (this approach increases the likelihood that you'll get error-free examples to learn from). Sydow explains everything he does with Carbon code--he frequently builds one application, then expands or modifies it--so time spent reading his explanations is well rewarded. Plan to experiment with the contents of the Mac OS Developer Tools disk (the one that came with your copy of the operating system) using this book as your guide. --David Wall

Topics covered: The fundamentals of programming in the Cocoa language for Mac OS X, as well as aspects of that operating system that will be new to experienced Mac OS developers. The author puts emphasis on creating projects (under Project Builder) and graphical user interfaces (under Interface Builder), as well as windows, menus, other user interface elements and the event handlers that react to their manipulation. There's excellent coverage of localization techniques, programmatic QuickTime movie manipulation, and techniques for porting Mac OS 8 and 9 apps to Mac OS X.