danking@aludra.usc.edu (Dan King) (07/27/89)
I know this has probably been asked hundreds of times, but is there a good/decent/passable objective C book out there? Is there a recomended way to learn the new language? I've been sitting next to an unused cube for most of the summer, and have finally decided to see if I can do something with it. Thanks in advance for any help, dank
chari@nueces.UUCP (Christopher M. Whatley) (07/28/89)
In article <4527@merlin.usc.edu> danking@aludra.usc.edu (Dan King) writes: > >I know this has probably been asked hundreds of times, but is there a >good/decent/passable objective C book out there? Is there a >recomended way to learn the new language? I've been sitting next to >an unused cube for most of the summer, and have finally decided to see >if I can do something with it. A good read on object oriented programming in general is Brad Cox's "OOP, an evolutionary approach". Fortunately, it is based on Objective-C and how it, as a hybrid language, will change the world. I am reading it now in my limited spare time. Also, send off to Next or Stepstone and buy the objective-C manual which has a tutorial included. First you might search for 'reading' in the Librarian.... Chris
gerrit@nova.cc.purdue.edu (Gerrit) (07/28/89)
In article <4527@merlin.usc.edu> danking@aludra.usc.edu (Dan King) writes: > >I know this has probably been asked hundreds of times, but is there a >good/decent/passable objective C book out there? Is there a >recomended way to learn the new language? I've been sitting next to >an unused cube for most of the summer, and have finally decided to see >if I can do something with it. I'll recommend something a lot shorter than a book first. In the NeXT archives on cc.purdue.edu (128.210.9.2) in "pub/next/docs/ObjC.wn.tar.Z" and "pub/next/docs/ObjC.ps.Z" there is a document (actually I used it as the source for transparencies) which gives a rudimentary intro to Objective C in the NeXT environment. It doesn't cover all of the features of Objective C, but it should get a person started. A second source is Brad Cox's book on "Object Oriented Programming, an Evolutionary Approach". The book is interesting, gets you hyped up a bit on Object Oriented Programming and spends a little time talking about a few other object oriented languages. The coverage for Objective C is less organized that I would have liked as an intro, but it does offer a perspective. Stepstone has the language manuals which are also helpful. They provide a more detailed description of the language. The manuals of theirs that are included in the "Appendices" section of the NeXT Technical Docs are entitled "Objective-C Compiler Version 4.0 User Reference Manual" and "Objective-C Runtime Library Version 4.0 User Reference Manual". In the Compiler URM, there is a chapter called "Thirty Minute Tutorial". I don't think the Tutorial is all that great, but combined with some of the above references, you can get a pretty good idea of how Objective C works. Stepstone also offers several courses on the language for those with money, time, and sufficient interest. I believe you can send a note to "aMessage@stepstone.com" asking for info or asking to be added to the mailing list "objc@stepstone.com". The list is low volume, low content from what I've seen so far, though. Gerrit Huizenga NeXT Workstation Support Purdue University Computing Center gerrit@cc.purdue.edu