My nephew just landed a summer job with a Mac software/game developer, and needs to learn as much about Cocoa, OpenGL and Carbon as he can in the next few months. (The company is aware of what he does and doesn't know about programming.) He was raised on Macs, but moved to primarily PC usage when he went to school for computer science (he's currently a junior). Needless to say his geek auntie is thrilled he's returning to the Apple fold with this job and his purchase of a Mac mini. <br><br>Anyone have any advice that I can pass on to him? In his own words, this is what he's done so far:<br><br>OpenGL I've been able to get the most done with, because I've been able<br>to use it on my PC while I waited for my Mac to come. I'm at the level<br>of creating geometry, lighting it, texturing it, moving it about...<br>pretty much just learning advanced stuff now, and I've got good books<br>and tutorials to help me out. So, not as much need for tips with that.<br>I've been learning Cocoa just by looking at the documentation, and have<br>made simple apps with some buttons that don't do much, but I have a<br>reasonably good grasp on the language that it uses (Objective-C). Any<br>tips there would be useful, but I've got the basics.<br>Carbon I'm clueless about, haven't seen a single thing about it, haven't<br>touched it. So, any help would be appreciated.<br><br><br>TIA<br>Leslie<br><br>

Apple wrote some books for O'Reilly...Learning Carbon and Learning Cocoa. I would think that would offer a start.

If he doesn't see this... I would PM JonnyCat. He started learning Cocoa from scratch about 2 years ago and is doing some amazing stuff with Xtralean now.<br><br>

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0...9439830-7281758<br><br>Cocoa Programming by Scott Anguish, Erik M. Buck, Donald A. Yacktman<br><br><br><br><br>Tell him to Buy this book and read it a least a dozen times. It's all he needs.<br><br>

I recommend Aaron Hillegass' book.<br><br>http://www.bignerdranch.com/products/cocoa1.shtml<br><br><br><br>It's easy to follow, covers a wide variety of topics and APIs, and each chapter has challenges that he can try himself. The web site also has an area where you can post about the challenges and get feedback, help, etc. from other readers.<br><br><br>

Thank you one and all! He's a smart pup, I've no doubt he'll check out at all this stuff and more and do just fine.<br><br>

"My nephew just landed a summer job with a Mac software/game developer, and needs to learn as much about Cocoa, OpenGL and Carbon as he can in the next few months."<br><br>That whole stereotype is true, isn't it? I wish I could get jobs without being qualified. What a blast!<br><br>

Yep, he's a complete slacker - no intelligence, motivation, intuition, or interest whatsoever in what he's doing! HAHAHA...boy did he pull one over on the president of that company!! BTW, welcome to the forums, you're making a great impression so far by not having any clue at all about the situation and making incorrect assumptions.<br><br>/atypical lesh snarkiness<br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>That whole stereotype is true, isn't it? I wish I could get jobs without being qualified. What a blast!<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>Who would you rather hire? Someone who claims to have Cocoa experience, but is not necessarily a good programmer, or someone that is a good programmer but just hasn't learned a particular framework?<br><br>I'd hire the good programmer. Cocoa, OpenGL, and Carbon are just APIs and frameworks that can be learned in a couple of weeks.<br><br>

I've seen this book off and on over the years .. looked through it many times ... Is it worth its weight?<br><br>****************<br>[color:red]Fat people are harder to kidnap</font color=red>