There are really two excellent books that should be on every Mac developer's bookshelf. First is a book by the magnificent Aaron Hillegass. Aaron not only teaches at the Big Nerd Ranch, but he also wrote a Cocoa (Objective-C) programming book that some would consider to be the Bible of Cocoa development; he has also been programming for over 18 years
Big Nerd Ranch is run by the very Aaron Hillegass who authored the book you picked up in step 2, and he teaches the Cocoa bootcamp class himself. The class is not cheap, but neither is it exploitatively expensive. You will learn to program for the Macintosh with a group of classmates, living and programming on a bucolic country retreat, where your meals and lodging are taken care of.
Scott Stevenson interviews Aaron Hillegass about the new edition of Aaron's book, programmers' fear of the NIB file, and why there aren't more Macs in corporate America.
Written by Aaron Hillegass, this is perhaps the book for developers new to Cocoa and Objective-C. In case you're wondering why this is such a seminal book, Hillegass was 'senior trainer and curriculum developer' at NeXT as well as working at Apple before heading to Big Nerd Ranch to teach their Cocoa course.
It's the time of year to head south for a winter vacation. Some computer programmers - they call themselves nerds - travel about an hour south of Atlanta to a spend a week at a dude ranch. But it's not the kind of place where guests ride horses or lounge in hot tubs.... Welcome to the Big Nerd Ranch. Hillegass founded it 6 years ago so computer developers could focus on learning programming skills, far from outside distractions. Hillegass was the head trainer at Next and Apple. To programmers he's kinda like Yoda, but taller. He says Big Nerd isn't so much a ranch as a kind of zen hideaway.
