As you may have gathered (from anywhere on the internet -- and as nearby as Paul Kafasis's post below this one), the iPhone SDK NDA is still in effect. This, of course, makes it impossible to write about the SDK.

However, in a couple of the comments made on my previous post, people expressed an interest in discussing and learning about some of the common tools of iPhone and OS X development, namely Xcode and Interface Builder. (These are topics that we can get a jump on learning even before the NDA is lifted, because they predate the iPhone SDK.)

I can easily identify with those of you who are new to exploring these tools, since, several years ago I had my first encounters with O'Reilly Network, pouring through the (then) new MacDevCenter, looking for information and and how-tos on all the same topics: Objective-C, Cocoa, Project Builder/Xcode, and Interface Builder.

Since Xcode and Interface Builder are common Apple tools, many of their uses for iPhone development will be identical or very similar their uses for OS X development. Here are some of the tutorials I used to gain a foundation that has helped me understand Cocoa development, and even now when exploring iPhone development.

Michael Beam wrote a long and very exhaustive series of articles specifically on Cocoa development. While OS X has changed a fair amount since he started writing, a lot of the functionality of the tools hasn't changed for modern OS X (or iPhone) development.

The Objective-C Language

This is a good overview of the language, discussing the basics of syntax and class definition, without going into too much detail about the vast number of available APIs (not all of which would apply to iPhone development, in any case).

Creating a Color Meter Using Cocoa

If the title doesn't sound particularly applicable to the iPhone, don't be deterred. Virtually everything covered in this article is necessary for iPhone development: creating and editing an interface (.nib file) in Interface Builder, the concepts and uses of connections (outlets and actions) and bindings, etc. Even some of the UI controls in the example are available for iPhone.

The Cocoa Controller Layer

This one is less of a coding walkthrough than it is a design walkthrough. However, it discusses quite possibly the most pervasive (and, therefore, important) design patterns in Mac development (and beyond): Model-View-Controller. Once again, this is widely used in the iPhone SDK, so it is truly essential that you have a firm understanding of it before going too far.

[Michael Beam wrote quite a few more articles (and at least one book) about Cocoa development, many of which cannot, perhaps, be applied as readily to iPhone development, because they deal with document based applications or UI widgets that do not have a place in the iPhone platform. However, if you are considering exploring Apple development beyond iPhone, I strongly recommend you look at his articles. I hope it would make Michael proud to know that he's continuing to inform a new generation of developers on the next generation platform.]

One last note: I'm willing to bet that the comment threads on these articles are beyond resurrection, so, while I might not be able to answer questions quite as well as Michael would, please feel free to ask here if there is anything you would like to discuss.