I just recently got my first mac. I do lots of programming on windows but now I want to get into Mac development. What are some languages i should know or tools i should use to get started with mac development?
+3
A:
For desktop apps, cocoa+objective-c are the way to go. XCode is the best editor for that. For webapps, I'd check out Ruby on Rails and Textmate.
If you've done Java development, you can keep on doing that, too. Eclipse will be very familiar.
MattW.
2008-10-02 12:53:44
+12
A:
Cocoa(R) Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition) by Aaron Hillegass.
Fantastic book and the author has alot of credibility - Apple brought him in to train their developers on Cocoa.
hunterjrj
2008-10-02 13:02:30
I am a Java developer whom has begun to read into MacOS development and I picked up this very book. So far, I am liking it as well.
Ryan Delucchi
2008-10-07 05:22:02
+2
A:
I've joined the Mac Developer Network, and subscribe to the many podcasts there. Not a reference mind, you just a place to keep you motivated on your journey.
casademora
2008-10-02 13:32:51
+1
A:
I second hunterjrj's suggestion of Aaron Hillegass's book.
Another book that I'm reading at the moment which is a good tour of Xcode 3 is Fritz Anderson's Xcode 3 Unleashed.
Apple's development website also has lots of programming guides and video. Sign up at developer.apple.com. If you have an apple.com account already (or iTunes) it is easy to extend that to a developer membership. Note that you don't get all the developer info unless you pay for a full ADC membership. But all the API docs and programming guides are available without paying.
orj
2008-10-02 13:35:06
A:
If you have Windows experience but also want to develop Mac software you might consider looking into REALbasic. It doesn't give you complete access to the Mac OS X Cocoa framework, but it can be used to make some slick Mac apps. And it's really easy to get started with.
Paul Lefebvre
2008-10-06 20:21:41
A:
You could try combining f-script and traditional Cocoa (xcode in other words). f-script is great when you want to experiment with the Cocoa API, which is surely different from what you are used to. The more dynamic you stay, the faster you learn. That is my experience.
cschreiner
2008-10-09 22:19:32
+1
A:
Are you coming from a Windows environment? If you do I would recommend Mono which is a .Net free implementation or Java, both platforms work well in windows/osx/linux
If you just want to target OSX then Cocoa/Objective-C/XCode is the way to go but im not quite sure how many documentation or examples you will find since there seems to be only one big provider for development tools for OSX and that is Apple itself compared to the myriad of development tools you might find developing for Windows.
Of course there are many other alternatives, remember OSX is a Unix operative system, you could easily develop with Python/Perl/Ruby and many other scripting languages and development technologies just be sure to know what platforms are you going to target.
Gustavo Rubio
2008-10-09 22:59:27