OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide Book Review

A nice compact way of getting familiar with OS X Mountain Lion. It is an overview of everything included with OS X Mountain Lion. The easiest way to show you the high level topics covered is to list the table of contents. I have listed the chapters below along with the topics included in each. Chapter 1 : What’s New in Mountain Lion? Improved iCloud Integration Sharing Everywhere Chapter 2 : Installing Mountain Lion and Migrating Data What You Need to Run Mountain Lion Preparing for the Install Installing Mountain Lion Chapter 3 : A Quick Guide to Mountain Lion What You Need to Know About OS X Using Mountain Lion Mountain Lion Basics Standard Window Controls Full-Screen Applications Files and Folders Nonessential (but Useful) OS X Features Auto Save and Versions Resume Chapter 4 : Troubleshooting OS X Common Problems Chapter 5 : System Preferences Preference Pane Rundown Non-Apple Preference Panes Chapter 6 : Built-in Applications and Utilities Applications Installed with Mountain Lion Utilities Included with Mountain Lion Chapter 7 : Managing Passwords in Mountain Lion Password Management Chapter 8 : Keyboard Commands and Special Characters Key Commands Typing Special Characters in OS X It is the perfect size to take it along on trips where I can put it in my pocket. Like shopping trips with my wife. It gives me something to read while waiting outside the dressing room. I really like that this book has an index. A very nice index. I have purchased other pocket version books and even some short full size books lately that don't have one. It is very annoying to not have an index. All in all I think this is the best way to conveniently learn about the features available in OS X Mountain Lion.

OS X Mountain Lion Pocket Guide

For more book recommendations check out my .NET, iOS, and Java Architecture and Development Book Recommendations for 2013

OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual Book Review

I purchased the OS X Lion: The Missing Manual to help me ramp up for my new MacBook Pro. Although I had been a Mac user in the past, it was in the distant past. It did a great job answering all the questions I had as I familiarized myself with the Mac operating system. The author does a great job of explaining things and he covers a ton of information. As soon as the OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual version was available I wanted it. It is by far the best resource available for getting answers quickly to any questions I have about the new OS X Mountain Lion operating system. The book is divided into six parts. I have listed each part below and the chapters included in each one. One. The OS X Desktop 0. The Mountain Lion Landscape 1. Folders & Windows 2. Organizing Your Stuff 3. Spotlight 4. Dock, Desktop & Toolbars Two. Programs in OS X 5. Documents, Programs & Spaces 6. Data: Typing, Dictating, Sharing & Backing Up 7. Automator, AppleScript & Services 8. Windows on Macintosh Three. The Components of OS X 9. System Preferences 10. Reminders, Notes & Notification Center 11. The Other Free Programs 12. CDs, DVDs, iTunes & AirPlay Four. The Technologies of OS X 13. Accounts, Security & Gatekeeper 14. Networking, File Sharing & AirDrop 15. Graphics, Fonts & Printing 16. Sound, Movies & Speech Five. OS X Online 17. Internet Setup & iCloud 18. Mail & Contacts 19. Safari 20. Messages 21. SSH, FTP, VPN & Web Sharing Six. Appendixes A. Installing OS X Mountain Lion B. Troubleshooting C. The Windows-to-Mac Dictionary D. The Master OS X Secret Keystroke List I am amazed at the level of detail the author goes into with each of the topics covered. There are only a few things I would like to see added to the book. They are the missing AppleScript and Unix chapters that can be found on line. By far the biggest disappointment with the OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual version is the removal of the Unix information. When I got this book I took the OS X Lion: The Missing Manual out of my backpack and put this in. I got to work, pulled out the book, cracked it open to where the Unix chapter was and only found… there is a whole chapter on it waiting online. It was weird to see a new edition of a book shrink by 42 pages instead of grow. I don't buy book so they can point me to missing chapters online. I buy them so I don't have to be online. I have to say it was a pretty big letdown. I can either keep this and my The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood with me, or go back to OS X Lion: The Missing Manual. Not sure which I will do yet. I would probably not have been as disappointed if the Unix chapter wasn't the chapter I was just starting when I got OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual. Beyond the missing Unix chapter, I do not have any gripes. I think this is an excellent way to learn to use OS X Mountain Lion and an excellent reference for looking up issues that come up. I highly recommend it to the user that wants to know how to use all the applications and features included with OS X Mountain Lion in detail. The most amazing thing about this book is the level of detail the author goes into with each subject. The author has an online site that accompanies the book. It has links to all the tools mentioned, and PDFs of all the chapters that should be in the book. All in all this is by far the best resource for learning about OS X Mountain Lion.

OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual

For more book recommendations check out my .NET, iOS, and Java Architecture and Development Book Recommendations for 2013

Test-Driven iOS Development Book Review

This is a great book for both someone who wants to learn Test Driven Development (TDD), anyone that wants to learn how to do unit testing in Xcode, and anyone who wants to improve their designs using TDD. The author begins the book with a nice overview of the benefits of testing and how to use TDD to achieve those benefits. He then moves right into how to write unit tests and covers the tools available for unit testing. He covers OCUnit test (integrated with Xcode) in detail and introduces Google Toolkit for Mac, GHUnit, CATCH, and OCMock. He then introduces continuous integration with coverage of Hudson / Jenkins and CruiseControl. After introducing the tools, the author spends the next six chapters building an application using TDD. He starts with a specification and ends with a working application. I have listed the chapters below. Their titles explain what they cover and show how the author attacked building the application. About Software Testing and Unit Testing Techniques for Test-Driven Development How to Write a Unit Test Tools for Testing Test-Driven Development of an iOS App The Data Model Application Logic Networking Code View Controllers Putting It All Together Designing for Test-Driven Development Applying Test-Driven Development to an Existing Project Beyond Today’s Test-Driven Development The cool thing about the chapters that cover the building of the applications is that the author hits on a ton of subjects in all the different layers of a typical application. The book hits on NSURLConnection, JSON, UITableVieController, view controllers, NSData, and a ton of the STAssert* macros. The book ends with three chapters chalked full of advice on how to design using TDD principles, how to apply tests to an existing projects and how refactoring plays a big role applying them, and the last chapter takes a look at the future of test driven development in the Cocoa Touch world. The code is downloadable as a completed project. It is very well organized and usable. It runs with no modifications needed. All in all I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The author's writing style kept my attention and he was very clear when explaining things. He also offered a lot of advice via relevant sidebars throughout the book. If you are an iOS developer, or just a developer interested in TDD, this book is a must read!!!

Test-Driven iOS Development

For more book recommendations check out my .NET, iOS, and Java Architecture and Development Book Recommendations for 2013

The iOS 5 Developer's Cookbook: Core Concepts and Essential Recipes for iOS Programmers Book Review

This book is much more than just a cookbook with a bunch of recipes in it. I have used plenty of cookbooks and they are never readable from cover to cover. I usually just familiarize myself with the recipes that are available, read the ones interesting to me at the time, and throw them on the shelf until I need them. This one I have not been able to put down. The author does a great job of mixing a traditional book with a recipe book. Most chapters contain both background information and recipes. Some chapters are mostly made up of recipes, and the first three chapters contain none to a very few. The first three chapters are dedicated to introducing the iOS SDk, Objective-C, and Xcode. I have listed the chapters below to give you a high level view of the topics covered. Introducing the iOS SDK Objective-C Boot Camp Building Your First Project Designing Interfaces Working with View Controllers Assembling Views and Animations Working with Images Gestures and Touches Building and Using Controls Working with Text Creating and Managing Table Views A Taste of Core Data Alerting the User Device Capabilities Networking This book lives up to the cookbook title. There is tons of code that comes with it and it is all very well organized and usable. The only thing I didn't like was that the author used HelloWorld.xcodeproj for the project name every time. After you open a few projects you have to go to Finder and the actual folder to reopen a specific one because all your shortcuts are HelloWorld.xcodeproj. I do like that the samples are built to run on both the iPad and iPhone, and that they run without the need to tweak them. This book covers a ton of material, but of course I always would like to see more. The thing I would like to see most in a fourth edition of this book is much more coverage of dealing with security on web services and JSON over REST. I am using the NSJSONSerialization class, which the author only lightly touches on in the book and provides a small sample application. I am not going to ding the book for not providing detailed coverage of dealing with security on web services and JSON over REST because it covers so much already in such great detail. No one is covering web services in enough detail for me, and although several authors have said there are plenty of resources on the web, there aren't. Especially when it comes to samples that also include security. Apple's developer documentation is greatly lacking in this area also. They provide plenty of theory, but no good clean concrete samples. I think this book is great for both the beginner and the experienced developer. The author does a great job of explaining complex topics that make it easy to understand while going in-depth enough to completely explain the topic at hand. This book is an invaluable asset for any iOS developer and I highly recommend it. This book will continue to be within arms reach every time I open Xcode.

The iOS 5 Developer's Cookbook: Core Concepts and Essential Recipes for iOS Programmers

Cocoa Design Patterns Book Review

This is one very cool book. If you want to get to know Cocoa from the inside out, this is the book to pickup. The authors start out with a great introduction to MVC in Part I of the book. In the second chapter the author builds an application with a non-MVC design and then refactors it to an MVC application. He does a great job of showing advantages of using MVC. The next three parts of the book are the patterns catalogs. The first covers fundamental patterns, the second covers patterns that help with decoupling, and the third covers patterns that help to hide complexity. The last part of the book covers Core Data, the Application Kit, and Binding and Controls. The chapters on Core Data and the Application Kit both contain really nice diagrams of the key design patterns used to implement them and where to find their coverage in the book. I have listed each part and the chapters included in each below. Part I- One Pattern to Rule Them All Ch. 1. Model View Controller Ch. 2. MVC Analyzed and Applied Part II- Fundamental Patterns Ch. 3. Two-Stage Creation Ch. 4. Template Method Ch. 5. Dynamic Creation Ch. 6. Category Ch. 7. Anonymous Type and Heterogeneous Containers Ch. 8. Enumerators Ch. 9. Perform Selector and Delayed Perform Ch. 10. Accessors Ch. 11. Archiving and Unarchiving Ch. 12. Copying Part III- Patterns That Primarily Empower by Decoupling Ch. 13. Singleton Ch. 14. Notifications Ch. 15. Delegates Ch. 16. Hierarchies Ch. 17. Outlets, Targets, and Actions Ch. 18. Responder Chain Ch. 19. Associative Storage Ch. 20. Invocations Ch. 21. Prototype Ch. 22. Flyweight Ch. 23. Decorators Part IV- Patterns That Primarily Hide Complexity Ch. 24. Bundles Ch. 25. Class Clusters Ch. 26. Façade Ch. 27. Proxies and Forwarding Ch. 28. Managers Ch. 29. Controllers Part V- Practical Tools for Pattern Application Ch. 30. Core Data Models Ch. 31. Application Kit Views Ch. 32. Bindings and Controllers The thing I like most about this book is the insight it provides into the Cocoa framework. Every pattern includes four sections, Motivation, Solution, Examples in Cocoa, and Consequences. The Examples in Cocoa section does an excellent job of showing how great Cocoa is designed. The authors do a great job of making use of UML, screenshots, and other diagrams to bring a visual representation to the topic at hand. Another thing the authors did well was providing links to addition information in the Apple Developer Documentation. This comes in handy if the authors include a topic you aren't up to speed on. All the code is available for download. It is very well organized and usable. The projects need updated when they are opened, but I didn't run into any that didn't work. I have always found that the best way to learn to use a language to its fullest potential is through a well-written design patterns book. This one is one of the best I have read. I will be keeping it by my side. All in all, if you are an iOS or OS X developer you should read this book cover to cover and then keep it close for reference. This is a must read!!!

Cocoa Design Patterns