Objective-C: Visual Quickstart Guide (Visual Quickstart Guides)

Most books on Objective-C are rather prosaic, but I like this book's organization, which breaks the features of objective-c into nice bite size concepts. For the objective programming naive developer, this provides a nice learning curve for becoming fluent in basic paradigms of Obj-C. I would refer to Apple's latest documentation on the evolving advanced features of Objective-C, which are not covered as well by Kaplan or Mark. I would study the basic Foundation types and NS Object before diving into Cocoa or iOS. I look forward to future editions of this book to evolve into a standard primer for iOS developers just starting out in Objective-C. Table of Contents 5 Introduction 9 Chapter 1: Getting Started: Essential Objective-C 10 Creating Your First Program 12 Compiling and Running Your First Program 15 Using Variables 17 Displaying Values in Variables 18 Working with Data Types 20 Adding Comments 22 Using Arithmetic Operators 24 Using Assignment Operators 26 Using the Increment and Decrement Operators 28 Changing Type with Cast Operators 30 Chapter 2: Directing Program Flow 32 Using the if Statement 35 Using the else Statement 36 Using the switch Statement 38 Using Comparison Operators 40 Using Logical Operators 41 Using the Conditional Operator 42 Using the for Loop 44 Using the while Loop 46 Using the do...while Loop 48 Using the break Statement 50 Chapter 3: Handling Data 52 About Creating NS-Class Objects 54 Creating Arrays 55 Initializing Arrays 56 Looping over Arrays 57 Creating Two-Dimensional Arrays 58 Using Pointers 60 Using Pointer Math 61 Interchanging Pointers and Arrays 62 Using Strings 63 Passing Messages to String Objects 65 Using Enumerations 66 Chapter 4: Creating Functions 68 Defining a Function 70 Declaring Functions Using Prototypes 71 Passing Arguments to Functions 73 Returning Values from Functions 75 Using Function Scope 77 Passing Pointers to Functions 79 Passing Arrays to Functions 81 Passing Constant Data to Functions 83 Using Recursion 85 Using Pointers to Functions 86 Chapter 5: Classes and Objects 88 Creating Objective-C Classes and Objects 91 Using Class Methods 93 Creating an Object 95 Creating Object Methods 96 Storing Data in Objects 97 Passing Multiple Arguments to Methods 99 Storing the Interface in a Header File 101 Adding the Implementation to the Header File 103 Linking Multiple Files 104 Using Constructors 106 Chapter 6: Object-Oriented Programming 108 About Access Specifiers 109 Using Public Access 111 Using Private Access 112 Using Protected Access 114 Using Class Variables 116 Accessing the Current Object 118 Creating a Variable for Multiple Object Types 120 Verifying That an Object Belongs to a Class 122 Checking an Object's Class with isKindOfClass 124 Verifying That an Object Supports a Method 126 Checking Whether Objects Support a Method 127 Chapter 7: Working with Object-Oriented Inheritance 128 Inheriting from a Class 130 Inheriting Base-Class Data Members 131 Inheriting Base-Class Methods 133 Overriding Base-Class Methods 135 Overloading Base-Class Methods 137 Using Multi-level Inheritance 139 Limiting Access 141 Restricting Access 143 Using Constructors with Inheritance 145 Using Polymorphism 147 Chapter 8: Categories, Posing, and Protocols 150 About Categories 152 Categories: Creating the Base Class 154 Categories: Creating Categories 155 Categories: Putting It All Together 156 About Posing 158 Posing: Creating the Base Class 160 Posing: Creating the Derived Class 161 Posing: Putting It All Together 162 About Protocols 164 Protocols: Defining the Protocol and Interfaces 166 Protocols: Creating the Class Implementations 168 Protocols: Putting It All Together 170 Chapter 9: Using Arrays and Dictionaries 172 Creating an Array 174 Accessing Array Elements 175 Using Enumeration to Loop over an Array 176 Creating a Mutable Array 178 Adding Elements to a Mutable Array 180 Sorting an Array 182 Releasing Array Memory 184 Creating a Dictionary 185 Enumerating a Dictionary 187 Creating a Mutable Dictionary 189 Adding Objects to a Mutable Dictionary 190 Chapter 10: Managing Memory in Objective-C 192 Creating Test Objects 194 Displaying the Retain Count 195 Incrementing an Object’s Retain Count 197 Decrementing an Object’s Retain Count 199 Deallocating Objects from Memory 201 Using an Autorelease Pool 203 Using Self-Managed Memory 204 Deallocating Memory Yourself: Creating the Class 206 Deallocating Memory Yourself: Storing Internal Objects 207 Deallocating Memory Yourself: Creating the main Method 209 Deallocating Memory Yourself: Performing Deallocation 210 Chapter 11: Exception Handling 212 Catching Exceptions 214 Handling Exceptions 215 Using the End Handler 216 Creating an Exception 218 Checking What Exception Occurred 220 Handling Multiple Exceptions 222 Passing Exceptions Up the Call Stack 224 Returning Values from Exception Handlers 226 Returning void from an Exception Handler 228 Catching Uncaught Exceptions 230 Index 232 A 232 B 233 C 233 D 234 E 234 F 235 G 235 H 235 I 236 L 236 M 236 N 237 O 237 P 238 R 240 S 240 T 240 U 240 V 240 W 240 X 240

Objective C 2.0 is the object-oriented language that is the basis for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, the development environment for the iPhone/iPod Touch.You'll learn all the basics: from handling data and creating functions to managing memory and handling exceptions. For programmers who want to develop iPhone apps, it's a must, and this title in the Visual QuickStart-style is the easy, fast way to get started.

Objective C 2.0 is the object-oriented language that is the basis for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch, the development environment for the iPhone/iPod Touch. You'll learn all the basics: from handling data and creating functions to managing memory and handling exceptions. For programmers who want to develop iPhone apps, it's a must, and this title in the Visual QuickStart-style is the easy, fast way to get started