Jump to content

Programming Mac OS X with Cocoa for Beginners 2nd Edition

25% developed
From Wikibooks, open books for an open world

This book aims to provide beginners with an introduction to the programming of Mac OS X Apps using Cocoa, and XCode, the free developer tools provided by Apple, Inc. Examples of Mac apps are: iTunes, Safari, Mail, iCal, Address Book, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc. Using Objective-C, Cocoa and XCode as taught in this wikibook will start your education in how to develop Mac apps.

Many of the skills that you learn in this wikibook can be used to build apps for iOS but there are some differences between Mac OS X apps and iOS apps. This book focuses on Mac OS X apps.

Some knowledge of another programming language, preferably Objective-C. The following link is a link to a wikibook that covers Objective C Programming.

Apple has a Mac App Store where it can sell your Mac apps for you and they will pay you 70% of the proceeds. The Mac App Store is available for users of Mac OS X, 10.6 and later by choosing from the Apple menu "App Store...".

In general, this text is written to be followed in order from start to finish except that if you have experience in C, C++, Java or Python, you are encouraged to look at the relevant section of the Appendix to orient you to developing for Mac OS X and Cocoa.

As each topic develops, it builds on the code written previously to add complexity and functionality, so you are advised to read this wikibook from start to finish in the order that it was written.

Contents

What Is Cocoa?

Building a Simple Mac App

Building Blocks of Mac OS X Apps

Building More Complex Mac Apps

More About the Cocoa Framework

Model-View-Controller (MVC) Design Pattern

More Cocoa Classes

Other Application Types

Managing Source Code

The Wikidraw App

Where to Go Next

Appendix