Re: Best book for learning ObjC?

[Felix Holmgren]

If you've basically never programmed before, I wouldn't necessarily
recommend throwing yourself into C and Objective-C. There are many
frustrating details to figure out, and in my opinion it's good to just
get a general feel for what programming is all about first. If you
have lots of time and are really stubborn, you can of course just
start with the thing you really want to do. I learned to program by
learning assembly language when I was 12 out of sheer stubbornness and
I think it gave me a good background, although I didn't really
understand what object oriented programming was until many years
later. If you are exploding with a desire to use GNUstep, just go
ahead. Beating your head on the wall is just part of the process.

However, a more sane approach would be to start with something like
Ruby. Chris Pine's "Learn to Program" teaches the basics of
programming using Ruby. I have had a look at it and got a good
impression, and it's got a good reputation:

http://www.pragprog.com/titles/ltp2/learn-to-program-2nd-edition

There are gazillions other books teaching Ruby. Learning from
something like that is probably a lot more fun than trying to figure
out what a static variable in C is, and it will teach you concepts
like objects, classes, functions, dynamic overloading, and maybe even
some functional programming-style stuff. It's much more rapid to
program in Ruby, and it's got an interactive mode, so you'll be able
to experiment a lot.

You could  also try Squeak, or (better) Pharo.

www.squeak.org/
www.pharo-project.org

Those are Smalltalk environments that are supposedly great for
learning programming, although I have to admit that I never really
felt excited about programming in Squeak. Things are starting to look
better with Pharo however. They've even got a "learn to program" type
of book:

pharobyexample.org/

(Last time I looked, some examples in the book were broken, because
Pharo is still evolving. But it's a good introduction.)
If you do learn some Smalltalk, Objective-C will be a cinch, since
it's modeled on Smalltalk. At that point there will be no way around
learning some C and getting a grasp of pointers and other low-level
stuff. But you won't have to learn that *and* the general concepts of
programming at the same time.

As I said, if you have the energy to start from "the bottom" (C) it's
great, but otherwise start with something more... fun. And learning
Ruby or Smalltalk will actually teach you some very useful stuff,
which is less the case with Java.

Good luck!
/Felix

2010/2/27 James Mahoney <jamesreidmahoney@yahoo.com>:
> Hi all (sorry for a possible double post; I don't think my post yesterday 
> showed up),
>
> I first would like to thank you for your efforts on GNUstep.  I appreciate 
> the fact that this kind of object and development environment is available 
> outside the confines of the Apple universe.
>
> I am looking to start programming in Objective-C so I can mess around with 
> GNUstep and Etoile and possibly port a Latin dictionary program written for 
> the Mac (which uses WebView for a lot of stuff - I'm wondering if 
> SimpleWebKit is far enough along to use for this?).
>
> http://retinenda.com/verba/
> Source: http://retinenda.com/downloads/Verba-1.0-source.zip
>
> In any event, I am wondering what the best Objective-C book would be for 
> somebody brand-new to programming (besides some terrible text-mode Java 
> programs for a CS 101 class that I should have tried harder in).
>
> If learning Objective-C first is not the best way to go, where should I start 
> instead?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> James
>
> Why do we find ourselves living as if to say “I am willing to pay the price 
> to settle for something less”?  — Lorenzo Albacete