ctshryock

I’ve recently finished reading Core Animation: Creating Compelling Dynamic User Interfaces for Mac OS X by Bill Dudney. I’m working on an app that I felt could really benefit some core-animation magic and after reading the programming guide from Apple I was left with good knowledge but no real practical understanding.

This book was well written and easy to follow. Unlike some other books I’ve read there was no hand-holding by the way of instructing you to “type this here”, instead you’re shown existing code (that you can follow with by downloading) and walked through each line and explained what’s going on and why. At first I wasn’t happy with this because I’m used to typing along, but after a few chapters I apprecated not being distracted by setting up each project and typing things here and there, instead just focusing on what’s there and really understanding what’s going on. I’ve been through many books whose “type this” didn’t work, or more often left out key steps and didn’t match the provided source code. In hindsight, I enjoyed not having to worry or get distracted by that, instead I could focus on what was being tought, and at the end of the chapters you’re encouraged to tweak things here and there to reinforce what you’ve learned.

I bought the beta pdf a month or two ago the book is not being printed, and with the iPhone NDA being lifted, I know the author is trying to throw the iPhone chapter back in with the printed copy.

Overall the book is well worth it if you want to learn Core Animation, both in teaching concepts and providing reference.