WWDC begins three weeks from yesterday. So I think it’s time to learn Cocoa. For real.

I’ve attended the last two WWDC’s. It’s not like I’m totally ignorant on Cocoa/Objective-C. I know the Mac’s innards rather well and can read ObjC/Cocoa code fine. I’ve messed around with all the intro examples known to mankind. I’ve done the Headstarts. I’ve gone through at least one book in moderate detail. I’ve written a few mini-programs on my own. But it’s all been to give me a broad knowledge, and I’ve long since achieved that goal.

I’m at the point where I think I can program in Cocoa, but when I open XCode I get the “uh ok what now?” look on my face. I can modify existing code but can’t quite remember where to start, simply because I only launch XCode once every three months. There’s a big difference between reading a language, and speaking that language.

It’s time for some “real” programming. To put pressure on myself, I’ll attempt to blog the next three weeks. I don’t expect many readers but someday, perhaps, I’ll look back on this and laugh at my early mistakes.

I bought the new Hillegass book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, 3rd edition. I’ve gone through the first three chapters quickly. I plan to re-read Chapter 3, on Objective-C, before continuing. Lots to take in, plus I committed the sin of reading while not actually doing the exercises.

I scanned the book’s TOC and index. I was a bit surprised to see no mentions of QuickTime (seriously, it’s not in the index!). But that’s ok I suppose – fundamentals first.

Let’s go!