iPhone Application Development for Dummies Book Review

It you are considering getting into writing apps for the iPhone, this excellent book is the one to get.

iPhone Application Development for Dummies

2nd Edition

By Neal Goldstein

Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-470-56843-9

This well written and planned book takes you through the details of iPhone app development by using easy to understand descriptions and the steady development of a full application that you follow along with on your computer. Along the way he explains the structure of iPhone apps, the way the object oriented coding model is used and the syntax of the language.

Anyone with some programming experience, but especially if you know some object-oriented coding, will be able to work their way through and come out at the end of the book with a solid base to work from. It is not the best place to start for those with no coding experience at all, as it assumes understanding of the basic principles. If you don’t have that, start with a simple coding book first.

While I’d quibble about the sequencing of a few topics, such as leaving provisioning till late in the book while you need it early if you want to actually test on a real iPhone, generally the book is very well planned and does a good job of explaining what can be a complex topic.

Some 400 pages in length, the book is divided into five parts and nineteen chapters. These are:

• Introduction.
• Part I: Getting Started.
• Chapter 1: Creating Killer iPhone Applications.
• Chapter 2: Looking Behind the Screen.
• Chapter 3: Enlisting in the Developer Corps.
• Part II: Using the iPhone Development Tools.
• Chapter 4: Getting to Know the SDK.
• Chapter 5: Building the User Interface.
• Chapter 6: While Your Application Is Running.
• Part III: From “Gee, That’s a Good Idea,” to the App Store.
• Chapter 7: Actually Writing Code.
• Chapter 8: Entering and Managing Data.
• Chapter 9: Saving Data and Creating a Secret Button.
• Chapter 10: Using the Debugger.
• Chapter 11: Buttoning It Down and Calling Home.
• Chapter 12: Death, Taxes, and the iPhone Provisioning.
• Part IV: An Industrial-Strength Application.
• Chapter 13: Designing Your Application.
• Chapter 14: Setting the Table.
• Chapter 15: Enhancing the User Experience.
• Chapter 16: Creating Controllers and Their Models.
• Chapter 17: Finding Your Way.
• Part V: The Part of Tens.
• Chapter 18: Top Ten Apple Sample Applications (with Code!).
• Chapter 19: Ten Ways to Be a Happy Developer.
• Index.

A great book, I highly recommend it to anyone considering iPhone application development. There is a related book by the same author and another on iPad development. I’m working through that now and a review will follow.