mldemsey@cs.arizona.edu (Matthew L. Demsey) (05/18/91)
This is a summary of the past posting and follow-up to the enquiry for Objective-C book recommendations. Hope this helps someone. Loki. (mldemsey@caslon.cs.arizona.edu) : ------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael D Mellinger suggests: Brad Cox, the author of Objective C, has a book. I forget the name. You might try looking at the FAQ posting which is archived on nova.cc.purdue.edu pub/next. Tim Budd supposedly has a book that mentions Objective C too. *** Don Mcgregor clarifies the Brad Cox suggestion: "Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach," Addison- Wesley. Supposed to be a new version out by now. The version I've got is somewhat light on actual Objective-C programming, though he does explain OOP quite well. The classes on the NeXT will be different from StepStone's. *** And Markku Sakkinen clarifies on Tim Budd's work: Then I think the book for you is Timothy Budd's brand new "An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming" (Addison-Wesley). It is exceptional among OOP textbooks in that it treats 4 different languages rather equitably: Smalltalk, Object Pascal, C++ _and_ Objective-C. (Bias warning: having commented and discussed a lot on the manuscript, I cannot be totally impartial about this book.) ------------------------------------------------------------------- An extremely thorough John Coppinger scribes: Cox, Brad J., "Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach" ISBN 0-201-10393-1. Good intro to Objective-C. (Note: 2nd edition - ISBN# is 0-201-54834-8) Webster, Bruce J., "The NeXT Book" ISBN 0-201-15851-5 A few chapters here are a good launching point into NeXTstep programming. NeXT Technical Documentation: Ah, the meat of the matter. Learning Smalltalk will help, too. The extensions added to C to create Objective-C were patterned after the Smalltalk model. Master Smalltalk ------------------------------------------------------------------- David Carpenter sites a tentative May release date on book: _Objective-C: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques_ by Pinson and Wiener (Addison-Wesley). The catalog says that the book presents basic concepts, an accurate description of Objective-C (both Stepstone's and NeXT's) and illustrates programming in Objective-C through examples. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Raja Georges Pe'trakian recommends: One approach would be to use the User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is provided by Stepstone Corporation. You can reach them at (203)426-1875. I believe that there are some differences though between Stepstone's Objective-C and the Next's. ------------------------------------------------------------------- and all other object-oriented systems are easy. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Raja Georges Pe'trakian recommends: One approach would be to use the User Reference Manual for Objective-C which is provided by Stepstone Corporation. You can reach them at (203)426-1875. I believe that there are some differences though between Stepstone's Objective-C and the Next's. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Geoffrey S. Knauth adds: Try also "Object-Oriented Software Construction " by Bertrand Meyer, published by Prentice-Hall. ------------------------------------------------------------------- And of special interest to all, Jouni at Helsinki tells: I saw in the new Addison-Wesley book catalog that there is a new NeXT-related book supposed to be launched in summer. The name is "Objective C - Object-Oriented Programming Techniques" by Lewis Pinson and Richard Wiener. The description says the book covers OOP with Objective C and specially on the NeXT platform. 350 pages, ISBN 0 201 50828 1, paperback. -------------------------------------------------------------------
tgingric@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Tyler S Gingrich) (05/20/91)
In article <1521@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> mldemsey@cs.arizona.edu (Matthew L. Demsey) writes: > >"Object Oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach," Addison- >Wesley. Supposed to be a new version out by now. > I asked the local bookstore to get me a copy of the 2nd edition of this book. This book (while it obviously contains lots of useful info) is WAY overpriced!! The orginal edition was a 9-1/2"x6"x1/2" thick hard-back book. It costs about $21.00 (US). The new/updated version is a 9-1/2"x6"x1/2" thick PAPERBACK. It costs over $29.00 (US). I buy lots of computer books, and I really wanted my own copy of this one, but I choked on the price. Obviously, by the time the publisher, both authors, and stepstone had stepped on the book, the price was WAY out of line.....c'est la vie. Tyler PS: Check out a copy (1st or 2nd edition) from the library, the information is good, the book well written, but..... Disclaimer: This post is not intended as a personal attack on either author (they obviously do good work), Stepstone Corp., or Addison-Wesley.
cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill) (05/20/91)
In my opinion (worked as technical writer *and* programmer both), the NeXT manuals on Objective-C, especially the "tutorial" sections that cover the the Interface Builder, are nearly incomprehensible. There is simply no excuse for describing a visual programming language without using pictures. Regrettably, the NeXT books are the only "comprehensive" reference to Objective-C, and certainly attempt to do more than Stepstones's own manuals, which provide one very skimpy example and class descriptions, nothing more. The lack of good books on Objective-C has hampered acceptance of the language, and Stepstone seems blind to this. They told me that everyone learns from reading their manuals. While this may be true, that does not necessarily follow that learning from their manuals is *easy*. Nor do you know how many people gave up because the manuals are inadequate. Stepstone could use an elementary introduction to sampling theory..... Andy Cohill -- | ...we have to look for routes of power our teachers never | imagined, or were encouraged to avoid. T. Pynchon | |Andy Cohill cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu VPI&SU