iPhone JavaScript Cookbook by Arturo Fernandez Montoro
Summary:Alternative for Objective-C in iPhone development
If you are working with CSS, HTML and JavaScript rather than with C++/C or Java it is worth considering to write applications using JavaScript instead of Objective-C. iPhone JavaScript can help you in here. This book provides you with a simple examples showing how to achieve various tasks like building basic UI elements, handling events, and incorporating images and sounds into your application.
Book starts with an introduction to frameworks that will be used later on within examples. You are guided by hand in here and I think that Arturo made a really good thing by incorporating this chapter into the book. You will be simply lead step by step straight to the point. This is nice, in case you are a novice to iPhone development. However, there are small errors within the book when it comes to the chapter content. For example, you won’t find wget at Mac OS, you have to use curl instead. Another issue is, that author assumes that you are familiar with CLI. For real beginners working with Mac OS it will be hard to understand why copying files into /Library/WebServer/Documents/iui simply doesn’t work. You have to “su -” at first in order to get an access to this directory. Question is, what the target reader will be. If you are complete novice, pay attention to some statements within the book.
After describing how to install all the necessary frameworks, you will be guided through various, UI related topics. You will be told how to create basic UI elements like menus, buttons, lists, etc. Next chapters will teach you how to deal with images, sound, and SQL databases. When it comes to SQL related topics you will get mostly all the information that is required to create typical CRUD based application. For some of the people it will be fine, for others it might be not enough.
Disadvantage of the book is that it is slightly outdated. When I tried to follow it, I was getting into trouble whenever XCode 3 is mentioned – this was because XCode 4 was the standard at the time of writing. You will notice different screen shoots and you will have to pay attention to the description of how to perform. This is not a huge disadvantage, however it may put you slightly off.
When it comes to the topic of the book there are, definitely, two big advantages of using JavaScript over Objective-C. First, you don’t have to learn new language if you are already familiar with JavaScript, second, you don’t have to publish your application at Apple Store. Drawbacks? It will be harder for you to sell the application itself.
Product page:
Packt: http://www.packtpub.com/iphone-javascript-cookbook/book
Amazon (in Books): iPhone JavaScript Cookbook
Amazon (Kindle): iPhone JavaScript Cookbook
