This is an Xcode beginner book, beginners in Xcode not in any particular language. What is Xcode? If you don't know, I really do not believe this book is for you! Xcode is a development environment for Mac OS X. It comes free with your OS X.
If you are an adventurous user, this book might be for you. Xcode is an environment, not a programming language. This book is the missing manual from the OSX box. To work in the Xcode environment one needs to know a language; this book does not teach you that. The book is a well paced, clearly written manual for the beginner Xcode programmer. In this case, me.
While I have not read it from cover to cover, I have used it as a reference. I was not able to find everything I was looking for. For instance, there was no discussion about plist files. On the other hand, everything I found, I'd be looking for at one point or another. As an example, it covers optimizing tools, such as Shark, it talks about the example applications that come with Xcode, and, it includes a chapter on using regular expressions in Xcode. A definite must that many would overlook in a "beginners book."
What else does it cover? It assumes the reader has very little Xcode knowledge. It builds up offering sensible topics. For example, just before the chapter on search there is a nice chapter on editing text/code with Xcode. There is a chapter that explains core data. A very important chapter, since core data is what programmers would use to write an application that creates documents. It also has a chapter devoted to "Interface Builder", a tool to create the graphic user interface part of the program.
This book does not cover programming languages. What if you want to learn a language and use Xcode? WROX has another book in this series: "Beginning Mac OS X Programming" (BMOXP). It is a beginner's book about how to program using one of many programming languages in Xcode. Certainly one can buy one book or the other. Ideally one would buy both. I feel they are complementary. BMOXP skims on both the language and Xcode; BX goes deeper in Xcode without covering any specific language. BMOXP would be lacking if you wanted to be more proficient in Xcode. BX would certainly fill a lot of holes.
There is no CD included. WROX provides the codes from both books on the web. WROX also provides a forum for the readers of each book.
I intend to use both books during the upcoming summer break: I'll be creating some Mac applications, which I'll make available to all of you, involuntary beta testers, I mean, MLMUGers.
Finally, let me finish by saying that there are not many books about Xcode. I have not read them all, but the depth of Beginning Xcode, its pace and clarity, makes it a must-have if you want to develop for Mac OS X.
Overall rating: This book (BX) is certainly not for the casual user, however, if you are or want to be a developer, this book is a must. I would buy it! I actually DID buy the second book (BMOXP)!
