Reddit mentions of Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition)

Just learn Objective-C. You'll find much more material and examples and it'll be another language you have under your tool belt. It's also the de facto standard for Cocoa development, even if there are Python bindings.

This book is good: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-2-0-Developers-Library/dp/0321566157/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250177866&sr=8-1

It's definitely not too late to pick up it up! For learning Objective-C itself, I highly recommend Programming in Objective-C 2.0 by Stephen Kochan; I used that book without any prior C knowledge at all and it was very easy to follow. Even if you feel you know the language pretty well, it's nice to have as a reference.

If you're more of a visual learner, this course here by Stanford on iOS programming is really good and covers everything from Objective-C and memory management right up to multithreading and OpenGL ES (plus it's free).

When you begin spending a decent chunk of time actually writing iPhone apps, the iOS Reference Library is going to become your best friend. It has a ton of guides and sample code all written and kept up-to-date by Apple. For starters, I'd recommend perhaps reading the sections under the "Required Reading" section (namely, the iOS Application Programming Guide, the iOS Development Guide and the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines (HIG for short). If you want all of the information on one single page, click on the .PDF button in the top right corner and you'll get just that. A couple of things which aren't listed on the Required Reading section but I think are worth having a look at are the Cocoa Fundamentals Guide and Apple's own introduction to Objective-C 2.0.

To give you a quick answer to the language-vs.-library question, the language is what you'll be using to manage memory, create loops, create methods and all that jazz, whereas the library is a collection of software which Apple has written to make your life easier. An example is a UITableView, a class written by Apple which only requires a few methods to be filled out and a basic data source, which will give you a scrollable view almost identical to the one found in the iPod app or even Settings app. It's a powerful class but extremely easy to set up if you just want the basics. I'm hoping that slightly cleared things up a bit, but if not, feel free to PM me some questions or even post them here for everybody else to see and learn from. I'm definitely no guru on this stuff, but I'll do my best to help.

Do you have any previous programming experience? Are you just looking to learn the core Objective-C language or do you mean the Mac OS X Cocoa framework too?

If you're coming from C++ check out this PDF.

Learn Objective-C on the Mac assumes you know some C and it doesn't really touch on the Cocoa framework, it sticks to the command line. I have found it useful.

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 seems to covers Objective-C and Cocoa and the reviews look good, but I haven't read it.

I'm a hands on kind of person, so I would just dive right in and start writing something. A new Mac should come with everything you need. But you can also sign up as a developer with Apple and download Xcode if your Xcode is out of date. Comes with a full iPhone emulator and everything.

Maybe pick-up: http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-2-0-Stephen-Kochan/dp/0321566157

EDIT: Hmm, now that I think about it, I wonder if I had to install the iPhone support for Xcode seperately. Either way, it is free until you decide you want to publish your app.

Programming in Objective-C is a good explanation of the Objective-C language. It shouldn't be hard to pick up if you're familiar with C. Beginning iPhone 3 Development assumes you have Objective-C knowledge and jumps right into iPhone development explaining how to use XCode as you go.

Take the beaten path. One of the niceties of developing for an established commercial operating system is having a central and authoritative source for documentation, rather than having to comb the web for fragments of information. There are certainly decent books available, but developer.apple.com has everything you need.

Begin at the Mac OS X Reference Library. You seem anxious to dive in, so the Cocoa Application Tutorial, available from the "getting started" section of the reference library, will be an ideal first stop.

Well I replied while I was on my phone so I couldn't link it. I followed my directions and was able to find it. It is the first book when you search for Objective C 2.0. It's called Programming in Objective C 2.0 and it's written by Stephan Kochan. Here's the link

If you can wait, go along with rattboi's mention of Hillegass's book (it's great!), and get Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) (Developer's Library) (Paperback) if you can wait a few months.

For iOS devices, you're going to want to start here, this will get you familiarized with the NeXtStep family of jive turkeys, followed up with a more formal introduction to Objective-C. I'll be honest, having some working knowledge of C will never hurt you, so after you're done with that, take a peek at K&R.

If you're aiming for Android, you have a bit of a different education outlook, I'd recommend brushing up with Head First Java. When I started poking around with Android, I read Hello, Android most of it should be still pretty relevant. I'm not entirely sure if it has been updated as of late, I outgrew it rather quickly, and if you do too; pretty much anything and everything by Mark Murphy is relevant. Best of luck!

So you are not a reader? Do you really want to give your CC number to some guy you don't know in another country?

Having a bit of experience myself, I was able to loosely follow a tutorial from a book a friend had lent me (possibly this book) and create a basic calculator app in a couple of hours while reading. If you copied their tutorials without trying to understand it at first, you could have a working app quickly, but it would obviously take longer to actually learn the rules behind it.

I've only begun learning iOS and Objective-C, with very little previous coding experience (some work with Visual Basic in high school...Har har). I'm using The Big Nerd Ranch Guide to iPhone Programming and Programming in Objective-C 2.0. Both come pretty highly recommended, and are even suggested for beginners, though both seem geared towards those with some previous coding experience. Either way I haven't had too much trouble yet, so I imagine someone with expertise in another language shouldn't have issues with these books.

Learning C first is a waste of time IMHO. The concepts of C that need to be understood for using the frameworks can be easily learned from a book like Programming in Objective-C.

Now for Cocoa or Cocoa Touch it really only makes sense to get the latest edition of any book related to this topic, as too much has changed over the last couple of years. Even a book from late 2011 would be obsolete in many ways.

Thus I would recommend resorting to online documentation, most notably Apple's Developer Website and start fiddling around with the given examples.