iOS 8 App Development Essentials - Second Edition: Learn to Develop iOS 8 Apps using Xcode and Swift 1.2

While I do not program professionally, I have been writing code as a hobby for more than 20 years. I started with VB 3 through 6, and then progressed into C# by 2002. Several years ago I tried to pick up Objective-C, I dabbled a bit with it, but could never really get to that ah-ha moment. It just never felt natural to me. When I heard that Apple was releasing a new language called "Swift", for OS X and iOS application development, I must admit I was a little skeptical that it would be any better than Objective-C. After looking at some code examples in Apples excellent documentation, and how they have updated the Xcode IDE along with addition of "Playgrounds" feature, I was more than interested to give this new language chance. I pick up the Kindle format of this book last month on my iPad. I have been going through the chapters of this book in my spare time, and typing out the examples using Playgrounds which allows me to get instantaneous feedback on the sections of code I am studying. I am only about 1/3 through this book, but have it open for study every chance I get. I find it to be well written and flows nicely for an intermediate programmer like myself that is already familiar with Object Oriented programming fundamentals in a language like C#, or Java. Neil Smyth's writing style I find to be clear, concise, and to the point. As I stated previously, I'm approaching Swift from a C# perspective, I know what functions, variables, conditional statements and objects are, and how they work. What I needed was book to help me map the knowledge I have of C# fundamentals, to how it works in Swift and Xcode. This book "iOS 8 App Development Essentials", is proving to be a valuable resource in helping me with my desire to learn Swift and iOS application development. I highly recommend this to anyone already familiar with Object Oriented programming fundamentals looking to jump into iOS development.

First, I have to comment on the size of this book. It is just under 800 pages! There is so much information packed into this book, that I would expect to pay triple the price. Now, on to the quality of the material: After reading a bunch of other app development books, I was getting worried that the days are over of actually explaining to the reader why the code works the way it does. They all walk you through an example and then you have to hope that you understand enough to be able to adapt the little you learned to your own project. Well, I am very happy to say that this book is the first to buck the new trend. The level of depth and material covered are enough to get you through programming a complex app. It is the first thing I've read (book or web article) that properly covered the topic of auto layout and helped me understand the process to get my app looking great on any size iPhone. Kudos to the author. Thank you for putting this out there.

This was a great book to kickstart developing for iOS. Some of the examples were light on detail, and the book and examples were very repetitive in nature, but each chapter is short and to the point. If you are a beginning programmer, this isn't the book for you. If you have experience in Java or C# and moderate experience developing software, this book is a good fit for you.

Neil Smyth has done it again. I've used his iOS references/tutorials throughout successful iPhone app development from iOS 7 to iOS 8. Good writers -- you know, ones who can SPELL, write a complete and correct sentence, understand punctuation, etc. -- are awfully hard to find nowadays, especially in tech. He organizes his content into a most meaningful flow and hierarchy of iOS (and Xcode) subjects that is natural. He starts with the basics and adds detail, building you up to understanding entire concepts, and how they relate to other concepts. Most importantly, he walks you through actual app development with some of the most well-written, well-illustrated, and aptly annotated tutorials available today (except perhaps, those by Ray Wenderlich). There's no better understanding than doing. Great work! Great reference!

This book is a good introduction to Swift and Xcode for those with experience in Object-oriented development. I migrated from Windows, and I bought this book looking for an introduction to the language and the development environment. So far, this book is doing a good job. I wouldn't recommend it for novices--it works best if you already understand MVM and MVVM. If those acronyms aren't meaningful to you, you'd probably be happier with another book. But I find that I am getting through the book fairly quickly, and it is providing a good orientation to this new (to me) development environment.

Excellent, thorough coverage of what it takes to develop iOS apps not just how to write SWIFT code. I have developed iOS apps using Adobe Flash and AIR packager. Most other books focus on learning SWIFT but that's the easy part! I' was not familiar with the xCode tools and libraries that are necessary to develop apps using Apple tools. Using these tools is the only way to learn but this book points you in the right direction. It might not be the best book for a newbie but for people with programming experience like me it's perfect.

Good introduction to IOS8 and Swift, but the index is very poor. I'm about halfway through the book and have started writing index entries myself in the back.

Good instruction and examples. Occasionally a line of code that won't compile under the new version of Xcode 6. Usually easily fixable.

This is an excellent book. Each topic is introduced in a clear manner in its own chapter. The topics are covered in easily digested portions and are accompanied by well thought out exercises. I have found this to be a most enjoyable book and recommend it to all. The book can be used as tutorial or later as a reference. Thoroughly recommended.

Hi... This is exactly what I wanted for! For a beginner, this book will do right justice. Pick any chapter and you don't have to depend on previous ones, and learn uninterruptedly. Providing more complex examples would have done more good, but then it would not be the purpose with which this book is written.

Great book that provided me with the initial knowledge needed to launch into iOS development. It covers every aspect with easy to follow and implement projects leaving nothing to chance. Highly recommended.

Neil uses significant and easy to follow examples and writes a well-structured code. All code works, which is not always the case in other books and (especially!) many online courses! The modules of code and single snippets are a good inspiration for one's own projects. The topics and the code examples evolve out of the preceding examples, which gives each subject of the book also narrative choreography. In summary: The book is very comprehensive, well structured, well written and not boring at all!

This book is full of interesting contents. It is simple to read and follow. It has lots of example projects and it works you through many aspects of iOS programming. One great missing is NSURLSession and networking in general. You will definetly need some other source of informations. In particular the book is focused much on the construction and use of interface elements and there are little or no informations about design patterns and MVC. Anyway It is a good starting point, and it worth the money. I suggest you also take a look at raywenderlich.com: they have very good free tutorials.