Anyone that says this book is nothing more than a rehashing of what is available online is completely wrong. I tried to start with the online resources and realized the following:
1. Apple's Foundation Framework and Application Kit documentation is incomplete and only for reference. These resources do not walk you through anything.
2. "Inside Cocoa" is a great and must read, but it only helps you understand the new terminology (which is very important because Objective-C adds many new terms to the geek speak we all love and hate).
3. Apple's Temperature Converter example was nice, but nothing compared to the examples in "Learning Cocoa".
4. If you have the time to sort through all the user groups out there and slog through all the different writing styles, then you probably can find everything that is written in this book. But I've "Been There, Done That" and I have to say that this approach is more confusing than revealing. Plus I don't have the time to search the web for everything.
"Learning Cocoa" is not "Inside Macintosh", mainly because it isn't as big as an encyclopedia set (I can only hope Apple plans to document Cocoa like they did with the "Inside Mac" series). But this book is a great starting point. Maybe they should call the book “A Cocoa Primer” instead, because this is really what “Learning Cocoa” is. If you’re expecting a reading experience as complete as “Inside Mac” in this 366 page book, than you are going to be disappointed. If you want to quickly learn how to take advantage of the power and ease of programming in Cocoa, than this book is well worth the retail price. The value of the Application Kit and the Foundation Framework's documentation increases exponentially after reading "Learning Cocoa". I can't say the same after reading "Inside Cocoa".
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