dead-tree periodicals on Mac development?

Question

upon being asked about subscribing to hardcopy periodicals concerning Macintosh development, I could only think of 'MacTech'.

are there any others? (and are they any good?)

thanks for your opinions.

Answer 1

I'm not aware of any others, but then I do tend to read Mac developer articles online, if at all. Even more than that, the relatively niche potential readership is probably the biggest reason why there aren't more Mac technical magazines.

I've considered subscribing to MacTech again (I did briefly about 10 years back) but find I rarely end up reading magazines enough to justify the cost. Long-term, it's much more economical to buy the MacTech archives DVD, although it's not hardcopy and you don't get the most recent content. I sure wish MacTech.com had a model that allowed readers to subscribe to content online and not receive the physical magazine.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I'm unaware of any printed periodicals other than MacTech. I've filled that gap with a few other forms of electronic media. I know you were looking for printed material, but I'll pass on a few of my methods of information satiation as a Mac dev.

First, on the book front, nothing is better than O'Reilly's Safari online book subscription. From here, you can stay on top of all the latest general development, Mac development, and iPhone development books. My favorite for Mac development is definitely Cocoa® Programming for Mac® OS X, Third Edition by Aaron Hillegass.

Second, for relatively static reference sites, you of course have Apple's development site - but another good user sponsored reference site is CoocaDev.

Third, for more dynamic and real-time information, you have to follow a number of blogs from Apple employees and indie software developers. There are countless great blogs out there, but a few of my favorites (and active) to get you started:

• NSBlog by Mike Ash
• BBum's Weblog-o-mat by Bill Bumgarner
• Cocoa with Love by Matt Gallagher

Then, for the most interactive experience, irc is the place to get quick answers and to often lurk for some interesting information (and help others of course) - go to irc.freenode.net - the following rooms are relevant:

• #macdev
• #macosxdev
• #cocoadev
• #objc
• #cocoa
• #iphonedev

Lots of great information is available for the Mac developer!

Answer 3

Hi,

In short, MacTech is it on the periodical side. There have been others over the years, but most of them have been acquired by MacTech over time as have some web sites.

There's also some amazing books from a variety of publishers.

Finally, whether look for info at MacTech.com or other sites, there's a variety of reference sites out there on the web.

Just so you know, MacTech has gone through a major surge of growth -- and last year again grew it's number of print subscribers by 20%. The reason for this is the kind of content that we're focusing on that is better suited in print than it is online.

Hope that helps answer your questions.

Thanks,

Neil Ticktin Publisher/Editor-in-Chief MacTech Magazine