I am very much agree with your opinions.

I think, motivation to learn a programming language would come from whether there is an implementation to use that language in a particular platform.

Since, iPhone is very popular, then it's a driving force for people to learn "how to program" for the iPhone OS.

I'm not sure there should be a necessity about "C for iPhone", but it would be better to write about a complete iPhone programming book, that would cover most of the low-level things under the Objective-C frameworks.

In other words, book about those things, which is not clearly covered on Apple's docs, and it should explain those programming topics in an easier way than the docs.

I'm one of those guys that did cut their teeth with OO / scripting languages, coming from an arts background and growing up with Flash, moving from processing to Java and getting excited by the iphone and diving right in, the *C* thing hurt a lot. Even a bit of dabbling in openframeworks didn't help much more than understanding the syntax a bit.
Objective C is pretty cool and very easy to learn (takes about a week) but for us Flash / Processing people the Apple framework is kinda limiting, we need openGL and coreAudio so we needed to learn C. Too many books DO focus on syntactical differences but assume I know the first thing about memory management, pointers and references. Wikipedia is no way to learn about this stuff. I'd love someone to write a book for us non cs background self-taught types.

Glad to see you maniacs are still publishing your RSS feed without paragraphs.

Liam:

The book you are looking for is the book we "cs background types" were asked to buy when we took our first programming class:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_(book)

C Memory Management 101, for the C runtime library and other libraries:

Learn what APIs allocate memory. Learn what API's de-allocate (free) memory. If you're allocating memory, know why. If you've allocated memory that you're not passing back to your caller, free it. If you're allocating memory that you ARE passing back to your caller, use conventions and documentation to make that explicit.

Pointers 101:

char a; //one byte

char *b; //*b (value-at b) is a char (like a)
// b is a memory address (a.k.a. a 'pointer')

&a //the address-of a, a memory address (like b)

In C, you can do assignment between things that are the same type, so for example:
a = 'A';
b = &a; //set b to the-address-of a
*b = 'B'; //set the-value-at b to 'B'

So even though we never manually reset the variable a, its value is now 'B'.

I was about to write basically what Jared just did.

If you want to program serious applications, you need to learn a serious programming language. You need to start with *C*.

I'll admit, I'm kind of a purist, and I hate the way Java programmers never really learn memory management; but there it is. M-M has to happen at some point, and if you start with a fluffy language that does it for you (usually poorly) and move into a limited platform like a mobile device where you've got to handle it yourself, there is no one to blame for your ignorance but yourself. If you want to go into deep waters, you have to learn to dive.

Though, it might be nice if someone put up a warning sign or two. :)

Well, well...
kinda sort of confusion here.

basically when writing software that shall run on
HARDWARE -->you
a) write it just to "run"
b) or do it WELL

writing good software always means going deeply to hardware ( and especially for embedded and mobile ). so YES ,learn C . and be good at C.

and don't hesitate to learn assembly.
you bet. you'll never regret.

cheers for Asm*Lovers

I agree. Assembly is the best thing that'll ever happen to you.

Yet another pro C vote.

"The C Programming Language" is possibly the best-ever book written on *any* programming language.

And knowing C makes it relatively simple to learn most other languages.

Now, I happen to like perl and assembler, but Objective-C doesn't make me feel ill. A bit of OO can be good for you. I started on Obj-C (v.1) a couple of years back, but didn't really get into it - Objective-C's retain/release is as error-prone as pointer stuff.

And then someone decided that having to write getter and setter methods for each variable *was* a pain in the neck after all, and introduced properties.

And then, indeed, *for performance reasons* we'll use C anyway :-)

So,

Learn C. Learn Obj-C. Then mix and match. :-)

//
CGSize shadow_offset = CGSizeMake( -1.4, 1.4);
CGFloat blur = 0.0

CGContextSetShadow(cg_context, shadow_offset, blur);
//

That's a mess. How about:

//
[myCGContext setShadowOffsetWithSizeHavingWidth: -1.4 andWithTheSameSizeHavingHeight: 1.4];
//

or, better,

//
[myCGContext setShadowOffsetUsingSize: [CGGeometry createAndInitUsingADictionaryRepresentation [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithKey: @"width" andValue: [[NSNumber alloc] initWithDouble: -1.4] andAnotherKeyBeing: @"height" withItsValueBeing: [[NSNumber alloc] initWithDouble: 1.4]]];
//

@Jared:
Thankyou... I'm ordering a copy right now.

Thank you, Colin, for your advice. I was just about to ask "what's the best book to learn C?", but see you've already stated the answer! Anyone have any recommendations of "best book to learn Obj C?" Thanks!

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Overture:
The company at the back of the BlackBerry is Research in Motion (RIM). In 1999, The first BlackBerry phone was launched and since then, several pleasant models have been appeared in the market. The current BlackBerry product portfolio now endeavors at a broader target group of regular consumers. The BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphone has obviously taken more than one thing into account.

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The front of the BlackBerry Bold 9000 handset clutches a spectacular display with below it, a full QWERTY keyboard. The monitor is crystal clear. It already managed to astonish one with its background picture. Furthermore, some videos were conveyed with the test sample, in which the quality showed to the fullest; one can easily watch a video this way! The display offers a resolution of 480x320. The full QWERTY keyboard is easy to use even for me with big fingers, the keys are completely accessible. After one day of sending text messages with this keyboard, you're addicted! The trackball, the same as on other BlackBerry phones, is also available on the Bold 9000 to navigate the device. The trackball works fine, although for scrolling through long lists such as the phonebook, an arrow pad would come in handy.

Phone Menu:
Shortcuts on the main screen of the BlackBerry Bold just like previous models. Opening the menu, a vast list with 26 icons appears on the screen. While everything is displayed at the same time, on one hand, this is rather inconvenient. On the other, it saves to scroll through the entire menu if you're searching. One will find selecting every icon time and again to remind yourself what it served for. The way in the menu proves to be a steady and solid operating system. The only thing I don't get is why the structure of the menu, neat and sleek, is not carried out in the settings menu, as you will now find a simple boring black text on a white background. This is a pity, since it makes things rather disharmonic.

MS Office:
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Music & Video:
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Internet:
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Blackberry Bold Wi-Fi, GPS and Maps
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Speed Network:
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Desktop Manager 4.6:
No software standard incorporated with the BlackBerry Bold 9000. This software can be downloaded from a special Internet page. The BlackBerry Desktop Manager 4.6 is well thought-out as well as straightforward. It offers a main menu with five options: Application management, Backup, Multimedia management, Synchronisation and Data transfer from a second BlackBerry.

Software application:
These clear software application consents to get the most out of the BlackBerry very fast. These mobile phones usually be associated with rather complicated software, but not the BlackBerry Bold 9000. If your BlackBerry Bold handset is connected to a computer, you can also select the mass storage mode which allows you swiftly manage the data on a memory card without having to install software.

Phone Memory:
The standard memory of 1GB lets you store several multimedia files on the BlackBerry Bold. However, if you own lots of music, and in particular for video files, 1GB is rather skimpy. Thankfully, the Bold 9000 offers the possibility to enhance its memory capacity with a microSD/SDHC memory card. The BlackBerry Bold supports memory cards up to 8GB.

Battery:
The 3.7V Lithium Polymere battery, according to the specifications will last for 13 days in standby and offers a talk-time of 4.5 hours. In tested period the mobile phone, I used the media player quite frequently and also the Internet functionalities. The battery then lasted for approximately two days which is fairly reasonable.

Culmination:
The Blackberry Bold 9000 smartphone embodies elegant design – without sacrificing the features or functionality you come to expect from Blackberry. The BlackBerry Bold 9000 is a mobile phone with striking design as well as fantastic BlackBerry functionalities. The large, crystal-clear widescreen monitor presents a perfect reproduction of many file formats. The Internet browser is easily accessible.The 3G internet speed and WiFi all connection options are at hand. Only the Internet pages divided in columns that the Bold 9000 effort with. The enthusiastic applications enable opening Microsoft Office files with the BlackBerry. To make adjustments to the files, you have to acquire a more enhanced software package. Thanks to the Push-mail function, which allow little chance to miss an incoming message, and the full QWERTY keyboard lets you answer immediately without a problem. The only minus on this handset is its integrated low resolution camera. Although we don't think it diminishes the value of this BlackBerry. Personally, I am delighted with the qualities of this BlackBerry Bold 9000. And if I have the urge to make pictures once in a while, I will bring a regular digital camera.

Thanks

Black Berry Bold

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