Title:** Mac OS X Advanced Development Techniques **Author: Joe Zobkiw Publisher:** Sams **Release Date: April 2003 List Price:** $44.99 (discounted to $31.49 @ Amazon.com as of 30-MAY-2003) **ISBN: 0672325268
*Description: Mac OS X Advanced Development Techniques covers everything from writing plugin-savvy applications crossing the boundaries between Carbon and Cocoa to creating your own System Services, Status Items, Color Pickers and more. Starting with a brief introduction to Mac OS X software development, Mac OS X: Advanced Development Techniques quickly moves on to over a dozen project-based chapters, each with complete explanations and source code. Chapters also cover programming Screen Effects, Preference Panes, Threads and the Terminal. Bonus chapters discuss XML-RPC and SOAP - finally, complete examples that show how to use these advanced internet-based technologies with PHP-based server backends and both PHP and Cocoa-based client frontends so you can see how simple it is to feed your applications from the net. Complete source code included. (Approx 456 Pages)
Book Web Site:** http://www.zobkiw.com/macosx/ **Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672325268/ Barnes & Noble Link:** http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0672325268 **Sam’s Publishing Link: http://www.samspublishing.com/
—-Comments—-
*JoeZobkiw: I like it but then again I wrote it!
7-MAR-2003: The book has just completed the editing process and is now being laid out. We are looking towards a pre-WWDC release in April 2003. The cover photo above is not the actual cover - when the cover is final I will post the real version. I hope you all enjoy this book! The first “Buy It” is from me.
26-MAR-2003: The book is being sent to the printers. It’s looking like an April 25th (or so) release is my best guess. I’ve seen a few pre-release reviews and have been impressed with what I read. Thanks to the reviewers for taking the time to read it over.
08-APR-2003: Got the cover today! See above or reload this page if needed. Books are expected to ship from the Publisher on April 24th or 25th and arrive in stores within a week of that date.
25-APR-2003: I received a copy of the book in the mail yesterday. This is the one that I’m supposed to use to mark up changes for the second printing. I’m very pleased with the book in its physical form. The layout is clean and crisp. The cover has a nice “feel” to it as do the pages. All in all the Publisher did a great job on it. Thanks to everyone who has emailed me well-wishes since the “press releases” were posted to the various sites and especially thanks for the orders!
26-APR-2003: After I wrote yesterday’s entry, I received my “shipment” of books. It seems that Amazon.com has them available now as well. I’m sure the other book sellers are not far#behind. Thanks again to everyone who clicked-through. At one point the book reached number 216 in Amazon.com’s sales rank in the past few days. It was 173,000 the day before! It’s slowly creeping back up but it was nice while it lasted! Harry Potter can relax now, I am no longer a threat! :-)
18-MAY-2003: For those of you looking for a bargain (on any book, not just this one) be sure to check out http://www.aaabooksearch.com/Price/0672325268 which contains price comparisons and many purchase options.
17-JUN-2003: The sample chapter is now available on Amazon.com as well as the publisher’s web site.
09-JUL-2003: According to my Amazon reviews, some people love the book, some people like it, some people hate it! :-) It seems that at least some of the comments are based on the fact that the word “Advanced” in the title may be confusing those who want something MORE advanced than what I offer in this book. Luckily some of the contents and the source code can be seen online so anyone can “try before you buy.” Thanks to those who offered the kudos and constructive criticism.
22-OCT-2003: In the past few months there has been a positive review in MacTech Magazine as well as a nice full-page ad from SAMS - of which this book takes up the top half - I was happy to see that! I’m still receiving some great positive email from folks who enjoy the book, I’m glad you are all finding it helpful - thanks!
2-DEC-2003: Scott Knaster used the source code from the System Preference Pane chapter as a starting point in his latest article for MacTech Magazine, “Building a System Preference Pane”, on page 10 of the November 2003 issue of the magazine. You can learn more about MacTech Magazine at http://www.mactech.com/ - this magazine has really turned around in past few months and once again holds great promise for the Macintosh developer community. You can download the source code that Scott used and pick up a copy of the book at http://www.zobkiw.com/macosx/
*Many examples, ok writing style, nice XML-RPC example done in Cocoa… Anguish/Buck/Yacktman is a better book, but Joe’s extras are a nice complement if you can afford it.
*Have only flipped through it as of yet, but all the example programs seem to be things that I have at one time or another wondered how to do :) - GormanChristian
*Leafed through, and it looked cool. Too bad I don’t have the money to buy it at the moment. –OwenAnderson
*Bummer, those Amazon reviews are pretty harsh. I personally really liked the book (I’m a bookworm, so getting this one was a no-brainer. I liked your other book too.), covering a bunch of topics I was curious about, but haven’t taken the time to wade through Apple’s documentation. I also liked the presentation - keeping the relevant code samples in the chapter, and the appendix with that code along with all of its life support so I could see it in context. ++MarkDalrymple
*Thanks Mark, I appreciate your comments. :-) I have your latest as well but have yet to dive into it - but at first skim it looks very promising and definitely one that will fill a mostly-empty niche. Congrats on your work! - JoeZobkiw
*It’s a decent tutorial-style book with some interesting things I couldn’t find elsewhere. It’s not an ‘advanced’ book though - I was hoping for something that would finally help me understand how to use Distributed Notifications and DO.
It doesn’t cover Distributed Notifications, but BookCoreMacOSXandUnix covers DO.
For the most part, there’s nothing to understand about distributed notifications - they work exactly like NSNotificationCenter, except between apps.