Learning iPad Programming: A Hands-on Guide to Building iPad Apps with iOS 5 [Paperback]

I have read many books on IOS and iphone programming. This book is definitely one of the best and thorough books for ipad development. The best part, is that it takes the reader through the entire process of creating a real Ipad app. If you're interested and want to learn Ipad programming, I recommend this book. I believe this book will give a great foundation and starting point.

This is clearly not a superficial book, it covers a lot and very well, but it is also time consuming to read it. And it has its own flaws. There are not many great books on iOS development in the market. Even less on iOS 5. And a lot less on solid application development on iOS 5. This book fills a gap. But, unfortunately, it doesn't do it so well as it could.

There is a bright side:
it covers many topics that other introductory books ignore, especially Core Data (data persistence) and application design on iOS (for example, well-respected publisher O'Reilly's iOS book "Programming iOS 5" has this unbelievable statement in one of the last pages in a book with more than 1,000 pages: "Core Data is beyond the scope of this book"). Furthermore, it covers subjects that are specific to iOS 5, including syncing with iCloud. And it does cover debugging and deployment, two very important themes. Xcode's new storyboard to prototype a functional user interface quickly is also well explained.
The book also contains a very good material on Objective-C, just enough to get an experienced programmer started. Many important topics are also included in the text: sending email, communicating with web services, creating an object browser, Core Image, touch gestures, container view controllers and AirPlay.
No doubt that this book has received many positive reviews.

But there is a negative side that is truly relevant:
There is a lot of text in the book than it is necessary. It is often long-winded, pleonastic, wordy. The authors seem to need a lot of text to convey simple concepts and ideas. A verbose writing style. One could argue that this is a pedagogical tool used by the authors. I am afraid that it doesn't work this way. To be concise (short but clear), to provide summary with the key ideas and to use illustrations that are pleasant (not only screenshots, but also true illustrations and artwork) are all very useful. Mere verbose, not.

Two additional negative points in the book is related to its very nature:

- an entire book dedicated to one application. One can gain a lot from seeing how different applications can be made with the same tools for different areas. Without jeopardizing depth, the authors could have applied many of the topics to different use cases while still keeping the main application as the target. One might say: instead of wasting a lot of text and space with an unfortunate verbose writing style.

- a book that is solely dedicated to the iPad and seems to ignore the iPhone (that, needless to say, is sold many times more and reaches a much broader audience). What is a shame is that iOS was designed for both the iPad and the iPhone and Apple tries to make iOS a uniform platform across its devices. The differences in use and in application design could easily be incorporated in the book. As mentioned above for the sole target application, one could still aim at the iPad as the primary target, but also have the iPhone development explained on the side. Not to forget that most users don't accept an application that has only an iPad version!

Another issue, minor but annoying: the chapter 6 on device provisioning is clearly out of place. It is not a topic to be ignored and is very good that is included in the book, but it clearly belongs to an Appendix. As it stands, it may discourage a reader that follows the chapter sequence without discrimination.

The ebook, Kindle version has all the screenshots in color (that the printed book unfortunately doesn't have). Hard to understand: its PDF version has no color screenshots, which is too bad (it would cost nothing!). "Sams Teach Yourself iOS 5 Application Development in 24 Hours" has beautiful color screenshots and artwork in the printed version of the book. And more: syntax-sensitive color source code! Congratulations to them. An example to be followed. Does color add to cost? Sams book costs about the same as this book!
One must recognize the efforts put forward by the authors to have a high standard of quality in the ebook versions, but a lack of color in the PDF version is not understandable and the higher cost of having color in the printed version doesn't compare well with other books in the same situation.

Can this book be fixed? Surely. And I hope its authors do so. It would be a great book. But, as it stands, one can only regret that it is a very good book with a lot of potential to be the number one -- that is in a large sense unrealized. I sincerely wish that reviewers of the first drafts of this book could have helped the authors to correct the serious negative issues of this book in time.

Meanwhile, one book that to some may look rather silly (but it is not) really shines on teaching iOS development with clarity, enough depth and much fun. Its name: "Head First iPhone and iPad Development". The Head First series style can be considered childish in many places and it certainly needs some improvements, but it is perfectly ok as it stands. As one can see, the Head First book does the two (iPhone and iPad) without any major sacrifice. Depth? Different use cases are presented. No toys. A new, third version of the Head First book on iOS 5 is due by June 2012. But the current one can still be used. It cover much less than this book, but it is not limited in nature as this book is.
With enough professional software development experience under your belt, you can rather try to go directly to the excellent "iOS 5 Programming Pushing the Limits".
These two books don't actually replace the book under review, but they do complement it in different ways, as there are not many good books on software development in iOS available in the market.

Nevertheless, this is still one of the best books on iOS. It may be often wordy, but rarely unclear. And it does cover well a lot of topics, some of them not easily found elsewhere apart from Apple's documentation. If its authors could fix what is wrong (especially the two limitations mentioned above and the lack of conciseness), this book would simply be the best book on iOS -- and, no doubt, one of the best books on professional software development available!

As of this review I'm halfway through the book. My background is hardware/software design, but I've been largely out of that loop for about a decade. Done mostly C and assembler, no experience in object-oriented languages. iOS made programming fun for me again, and _Learning iPad Programming_ made learning fun again. I began reading three other popular books on iOS development before this, and this is my favorite yet; I'll read this one to the end. Bottom line: It's helping me learn. Pros: It covers a wide variety of topics ("soup to nuts"); it goes in depth -- its broad coverage does not mean short on details; very well edited for grammar and spelling (I'm a nit picker) which shows attention to detail; nearly every line of code in listings is explained; best of all every chapter so far has proven to me there is something to learn. Cons: [crickets]. If you must have a con, Chapter 13 (Core Data) began kicking my butt, requiring more gray matter compared to previous chapters. Not a fault of the book, but rather, Core Data is complex and it's nose-to-grindstone time. This book challenges me and I learn from it, and the process is enjoyable.

As has already been described, the book steps you through developing a prototype app and then a "real-world" app, while using opportunities along the way to discuss features of the development environment as you go. I have found this approach more successful than stepping the reader through many separate demo apps (unrelated to each other) throughout a book. The former approach builds on what has been learned in previous chapters and I think it works because you remain focused, and the goal is more practical, less theoretical.

At least one reviewer mentioned (physically) thin pages, small fonts and no color. While I did noticed the thin pages immediately, I forgot about it after the first few pages, and it perhaps it packs more material into the same given space. Or if it saves the publisher money, so be it. In my opinion the book is still priced far below the value I get from it (and I'm only halfway through). I bought the book to learn, and given a choice between a function and aesthetics, well ask yourself which helps you accomplish your mission faster.

You'll want to have some software development experience covering fundamentals before reading this. Experience in C would be helpful, as would a very general understanding of object-oriented programming (if nothing else: model-view-controller concept, and sending messages to receivers).

Bottom line: It's well written and highly efficient. For the programmer who wants a broad overview of iPad (and iPhone) development and the Xcode 4.x environment, without sacrificing too much detail and depth, I highly recommend it; you will learn from this book.