iOS 7 Programming Fundamentals- Objective-C, Xcode, and Cocoa Basics Book Review

This book is a great place to start with iOS 7 development. It is actually the first 13 chapters of what would have been Programming iOS 7 4th edition. The book Programming iOS 6 contained everything, but the book was getting too large to keep adding new material. This book now ends where Programming iOS 7 will pick up. The separation is nice for those that have experience with iOS and only need the advanced topics. I still wanted both parts of the book, because I like the authors coverage of C, Objective-C, Xcode, introduction to Cocoa. After advising the reader to brush up on their C by reading certain parts of C Programming Language, and then spending a chapter showing how C relates to Objective-C, the author has a really nice overview of Objective-C. The overview is Part I of the book and it is 5 chapters long. The chapters include Just Enough C, Object-Based Programming, Objective-C Objects and Messages, Objective-C Classes, and Objective-C Instances. Part II IDE includes chapters on Anatomy of an Xcode Project, Nib Management, Documentation, and Life Cycle of a Project. In part II the author goes into detail about the architecture of the project and the files included in the project. He does a great job of explaining nibs, the coding environment, testing, debugging, and provides an overview of the steps taken when submitting your app to the app store. The author also points out and shows you how to take advantage of the Xcode documentation. Part III is all about Cocoa. It includes chapters on Cocoa Classes, Cocoa Events, Accessors and Memory Management, and Data Communication. The author does a great job of explaining Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) in this section. The downloadable code is very well organized and usable. It is broken down into folders by chapter and page number which makes it very convenient to find the sample you want. The author's approach and writing style made it a pleasure to read. He does a great job of explaining complex topics and always covers everything in depth. If you are planning to start iOS 7 development, you owe it to yourself to buy this book and keep it at arms length!!!

iOS 7 Programming Fundamentals: Objective-C, Xcode, and Cocoa Basics