Hi all,
I am newbie to Mac Application Development.I am planning for an application having the features like de-fragmenting the mac ,parental controls, data backup etc...
I do have some exposure to Objective C (Developed a small application for iphone)
So please anyone could advice me regarding where to start,where to find best resources for mac application development(Videos) and what libraries and frameworks i need to focus for this app.
Thanks in advance....
Mac OS X development is very similar to work you'd undertake on the iPhone. In the way of libraries - Mac OS X is packed with functionality, making development quite fast a lot of the time.
The first thing I'd advise you to do is get to grips with Xcode, it's a fabulous IDE when you get used to it. How well you know the IDE, will also affect your productivity. It doesn't take to long to get familiarised with it, once you are though - you'll begin to also learn some of the shortcuts and other tricks that make development a lot easier! The reason I say Xcode, is - whilst you could use another IDE, Xcode really is unbeatable when it comes to developing for the Mac Platform. (I, personally, use Eclipse on Linux and Windows - and use that for a variety of languages. On Mac however, developing with Objective-C and Cocoa (or Cocoa-Touch/iPhone-SDK) it really is brilliant)
Knowing the IDE will also make it easier to work with different frameworks - by adding them to the project, understanding build options etc. Not to mention how well the gdb (GNU debugger) is integrated with the package. For a free IDE it's very comprehensive and can make development quite enjoyable. (There are downsides, the way it handles multiple documents can be quite an annoyance at times)
When I talk about getting to grips with Xcode, I also mean Interface Builder too. It's easy to build interfaces with the simple drag-n-drop features that Interface Builder implements - but it also pays to get to know how to use the Inspector to edit specific options.
One of the things I enjoy about developing for Apple platforms is the quality of the Apple documentation. Very rarely have I encountered problems with it. There is also a wealth of examples to go with the documentation. I fully advise you to check out the Apple Developer Connection, even if you aren't a fee-paying member; there's still some brilliant resources out there! Then there's other websites you'll grow to love - such as CocoaDev.
So in short - by getting used to the Cocoa framework and the xcode IDE, you'll be well equipped to take on many programming tasks. Beyond that, reading the Apple Developer Documentation is a great resource at times, and can answer many topics. Then there's websites like StackOverflow and CocoaDev where often you can find answers to topics which may not have been documented so well.
You may also want to check this discussion on the Apple forums - it has some very good resources linked to it.
Above all though, enjoy what you're learning - and it will make it even easier! Good luck