Rating:  - A great introductory book on Objective-C
As its title suggests, this is an introductory level book on Objective-C. The current interest on Objective-C application is mounting presumably due to the imminent release by Apple Inc. of the software developer's kit for the iphone and the ipod Touch. As a novice in computer science (I actually had taken a 101 on BASIC in early college years), I found this book to be extremely appropriate for anyone who is looking for an introduction course in Objective C. The book is very well organized. It stages itself well in the early chapters with simple examples of computer coding. Progressively, the author guides the readers to the relevance of some of these examples to the idea of object oriented programming (OOP). Throughout the book, it delivers coherently the concept of OOP and its potential advantages over typical non-object oriented programming. The pacing of the book is such that readers at the introductory level feel invited, rather than intimidated, to continue the learning process. I enjoy reading this book tremendously.
Rating:  - Great for picking up Obj-C 1.0, don't use for learning the framework
This is a great book if you want to learn objective-c 1.0 and are looking for a quick read. It assumes that you have no programming experience which makes it really easy and provides a good refresher on C based programming in case it has been a while for you.
If you are looking for a book on the foundation framework with the intention of doing some programming on the Mac then look else where. This book does not cover the entire framework and its material is a little dated.
!Take Note! This book covers objective-c 1.0 so it does not cover "properties" and "fast enumeration" which were the major features added to objective-c 2.0 which is the current version of objective-c.
Rating:  - Be sure to see the publication date
First, I just got the book and haven't read through it much. Please see the other reviews for info about the contents. I just want to point out to people who are considering this book as a basis for iPhone development to be wary of the publication date. The book is quite old. It does not cover Objective-C 2.0 (used for iPhone software). That's not a big deal (there aren't too many differences between 2.0 and previous versions of the language, that I know about anyway). However, I was a bit concerned that the book starts off talking about Apple's "project builder" on the Mac and mentions that a new program, "XCODE" is being written to replace it. Well, XCODE is up to version 3.0 these days. So the book is missing a *lot* of information that would be handy for someone like myself who is coming at this from a PC programming background and knows *nothing* about Mac/Objective-C development.
Again, I want to emphasize that I'm not in a position to comment about how well the book covers the Objective-C language and the applicability of this book to iPhone development. I would just point out that if you're in the same position I'm in, it might be worthwhile to consider waiting for a revision or looking into other sources.
Having said that, the Apple documentation on the Objective-C language is absolutely terrible. So maybe the combination of this book and Apple's documentation will work. That remains to be seen.
Rating: - Good book.
The pedagogy is sound and provides a strong foundation for beginning Obj-C progammers. You don't have to be in Mac OS X to make use of this book.
Rating: - I enjoy this book
I am a professional Java developer and working with object oriented design every day. Originally I thought let me just pick up a Cocoa book and start the coding quickly. I then realize that Objective-C is a very different object oriented language. This book does not assume any background of C language, and explain things in real detail from the real Objective-C point of view. After reading this book, I found that Objective-C was an elegant addition on top of the original C programming language. It achieve all object-oriented features without over complicate the original language. If you want to learn Objective-C, this is definitely the book to start from. Since Objective-C is supported by GCC compiler, this book also tells you what is Mac OS X specific, and what is supported by all platform.
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