Press Release
May 28, 2003
A Complete Desktop Reference for Cocoa Developers: O'Reilly Releases "Cocoa in a Nutshell"
Sebastopol, CA--Cocoa is more than just a collection of classes, it's a
complete API set, class library, framework, and development environment
for building applications and tools to run on Mac OS X. With more than
240 classes, Cocoa is divided into two essential frameworks: Foundation
and Application Kit. Above all else, Cocoa is a toolkit for creating
Mac OS X application interfaces, and it provides access to all of the
standard Aqua interface components such as menus, toolbars, windows,
and buttons. But aside from the material that Apple includes with its
Developer Tools, very little documentation exists to cover Cocoa's
Objective-C Frameworks--vital tools for anyone interested in developing
applications for Mac OS X. Cocoa in a Nutshell by Michael Beam and
James Duncan Davidson (O'Reilly, US $39.95) is the book developers will
want close at hand as they work with this technology.
"Cocoa has a lot of potential," says coauthor Beam. "It takes a lot of
the burden off of application developers by providing an extremely rich
foundation of functionality that is needed in every application.
Developers can build on this and spend their time coming up with
creative and innovative ways for users to interact with their
applications. Apple is empowering developers to be innovative with
Cocoa."
"Cocoa in a Nutshell" is divided into two parts, with the first part
providing a complete overview of Cocoa's classes. It provides
developers who may be experienced with other application toolkits the
grounding they'll need to start developing Cocoa applications. It
describes common programming tasks, and many chapters focus on the
larger patterns in the frameworks so developers can understand the
larger relationships between the classes in Cocoa, which is essential
to using the framework effectively. Part one includes:
An overview of the Objective-C language Coverage of the Foundation and Application Kit frameworks Overviews of Cocoa's drawing and text
handling classes Network services such as hosts, Rendezvous, URL services, sockets, and
file handling Distributed notifications and distributed objects for interapplication
communication Extending Cocoa applications with other frameworks, including the
AddressBook, DiscRecording, and Messaging frameworks
The second half of the book is a detailed quick reference to Cocoa's
Foundation and Application Kit (AppKit) classes. A complement to
Apple's documentation, "Cocoa in a Nutshell" is the only reference to
the classes, functions, types, constants, protocols, and methods that
make up Cocoa's Foundation and Application Kit frameworks, based on the
Jaguar release (Mac OS X 10.2).
According to coauthor Beam, "Cocoa in a Nutshell" will help developers
find the information they need faster and easier. "The 'In a Nutshell'
format had always been a very efficient means of communicating
information, particularly for more experienced developers," says Beam.
"Cocoa is a very verbose and wordy API; that is, the method names are
long and can have many arguments. It is often the case that a developer
can be moving along in his code, and he knows what method to use, but
can't remember the precise syntax. This book seeks to provide a quick
way to look up that syntax."
Additional Resources:
Cocoa in a Nutshell
Michael Beam and James Duncan Davidson
ISBN 0-596-00462-1, 545 pages, $39.95 (US), $61.95 (CAN), 28.50 (UK)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
Return to: O'Reilly Press Room
|
Recent Press Releases
Press Release Archive »
Resources
Press Contacts
Corporate
Sara Winge
800/998-9938 x7109
Media Relations - North America
Sara Peyton
800/998-9938 x7118
Media Relations - Germany
Corina Pahrmann
+49-221-973160-22
Media Relations - Japan
Kenji Watari
+81-3-3356-5227
Media Relations - United Kingdom
Josette Garcia
+44 (0)1252-721284
Media Relations - Conferences
Maureen Jennings
800/998-9938 x7083
|
