iOS Succinctly by Syncfusion is one of the most concise books on iOS I have read. It is the second book in a two-part series on iPhone and iPad app development. Objective-C Succinctly was the initial book and it covered Objective-C and core data structures used by virtually all iOS applications.
iOS Succinctly obviously assumes that you know Objective-C and am basically familiar with the Xcode integrated development environment (IDE). Both of these books are written by Ryan Hodson, so they obviously compliment each other perfectly.
iOS was designed with security in mind. Unlike other mobile operating systems (cough*Android*cough) iOS will not give your application access to the Apple device’s entire file system. iOS gives every application its own separate file system. This is also called sandboxing. What this means is that your application will not have access to files used and generated by other applications.
This is especially comforting to me when I am using my on-line banking application. This sandboxing also doesn’t give any app access to every System file either. When your application needs to access files not generated or owned by itself, (think of the user’s contact list), your application will need to request it from a mediator (e.g., the Address Book Framework) instead of accessing the files directly.
It is therefore clear that iOS functions differently than most other mobile OS’s out there today. If you are coming from another development platform or are new to iOS development, you need to read this book. iOS Succinctly is by no means a total solution to all your iOS questions, but that is exactly the point. There is exactly enough information in order to help you digest just what you need without being overwhelmed with info. This is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome with technical books… Information overload.
iOS Succinctly
I come from a .NET environment and the concepts explained in iOS Succinctly are done so in a clear and easy to understand manner. Have a peek at the abridged table of contents:
- Chapter 1 – Hello, iOS! (Creating a new project, designing a UI, Actions, Outlets, Delegates)
- Chapter 2 – Multi-Scene Applications (Master-Detail Project, The Master Scene, The Detail Scene, The Edit View Controller)
- Chapter 3 – Asset Management (Application Sandbox, File System, Application Bundle)
- Chapter 4 – Localization (Enabling Localization, Localizing Images, Localizing Text)
- Chapter 5 – Audio (System Sounds, AVAudioPlayer)
If you want to start with iOS development, my suggestion to you would be to start with iOS Succinctly. It will give you a definite head-start and help you to get to grips with some basic concepts of iOS development. I can hardly believe that iOS Succinctly is a free eBook. Usually, free implies a half baked or flimsy content. Syncfusion have gone to great lengths to provide topical eBooks that are technically correct and very informative to the extent that the content can be compared and compete with published titles. I really believe that this is due to their choice of authors who are clearly experts in their respective field.
Win Win Win: Orubase Give-away
You might wonder what the catch is? Why is Syncfusion giving away such excellent eBooks? Well there is no catch. Syncfusion loves to give back to the developer community. In fact, they have graciously decided to give away three Orubase licenses to the readers of this blog.
There are two ways to enter the raffle:
- Follow me on twitter and send a tweet using the following hashtags: #Syncfusion and #OrubaseRaffle including a link to this article.
- For those not on Twitter, leave a comment on the post below. The more inventive, the better.
I will select a winner at random, so make sure you use a valid email address to comment because Syncfusion will need to be able to contact you if you win! Winners will be chosen on the 3rd of July 2013. Syncfusion have many other free titles that are available on their website. Head on over there and jump-start your development with a free eBook from the Succinctly series.
