BOULDER iOS

COMiNG SOON

Welcome! We're a group of developers that meet monthly to discuss all things Apple and iOS. Everything goes through Meetup.com, so check it out:

http://www.meetup.com/Boulder-iOS/

TBD

coming soon

SLiDES & CODE

BOOK REViEWS

Beginning iOS Apps with Facebook and Twitter APIs

Good, not a reference book

review by Justin, 2012.1.2

First, despite the title, this is not a beginners book. It has plenty of advanced concepts with some nice sample code, including CoreData, CoreLocation, MapKit, notifications, background threads, etc. "Complete" is more accurate as it takes you from nothing through auth, querying, posting, and even UI design across both Facebook and Twitter APIs. Every chapter covers a topic, and then has examples from both APIs. Although, since the Facebook API is bigger than Twitter, it receives proportionally more coverage in the text.

There are two drawbacks to trying to cover these APIs in a book. One, both APIs are relatively big, so you get only a few specific examples before the authors have to abort and just give you a link out to the official docs. Two, both APIs are very fluid — it seems to be a monthly occurrence to hear about a new service from Facebook or Twitter. These issues combine to make the book not much of a reference.

On the whole, it seems like the authors recognize these limitations and do a great job focusing on the concepts of dealing with a remote service — how to cache the data locally, how to update the local cache in the background, how to parse the data into ready-to-use objects, etc. I give it four stars because the code examples are excellent (you get a new sample app or two every chapter) and they go all the way up to the UI (how do get the data on the screen in a useable manner). Read it, learn something, then give it to a friend.

Pro Objective-C Design Patterns for iOS

Practical patterns and usage

review by Justin, 2011.9.19

First, this is not a pure patterns book that you might study from in college. To me, it was focused more on the practical every-day iOS developer (and not the computer scientist). If you want a patterns book, just get the GoF like everyone says.

This book does two things well: it covers many patterns that are frequently used in the Cocoa Touch framework (and it really digs into the details) and it covers in a very practical manner how to use a given pattern on iOS.
read more...

Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Makes you better

review by Justin, 2011.5.22

First a warning: this is not a good book for learning Inkscape. Nor will it teach you the basics of vector illustration if you've never used vector drawing software before.

It is, as the title says, a cookbook with over one hundred recipes that cover all facets of vector illustration. This book, and those recipes, are targeted at the occasional Inkscape user and will help elevate you to a master vector illustrator. If you're a pixel guy that just dabbles in vector, then this book is for you.
read more...