New Screencasts: Coding in Objective C 2.0 by Bill Dudney

Pragmatic Programmers – a niche publisher popular in the progressive programming world – has recently been getting into producing short, info-packed screencasts on new and up and coming topics. Their latest is Coding in Objective C 2.0 by Bill Dudney. As a relatively novice Objective C coder, they invited me to give them a whirl.

The Coding in Objective C 2.0 series is currently just two screencasts long ($5 each) but more are in the pipeline. The first runs for 51 minutes and comprehensively covers the basics. It’s not just an introduction to Objective C but also Xcode, and as a screencast you get walked through every step. If you want more hand holding than a book, this is ideal, and the screencast is paced so that you can follow along live quite comfortably (exactly what I did!). The introduction covers building a very simple Objective C app (that uses the console for output, no GUI), building a class, creating methods, passing messages, and using properties.

Episode two covers memory management with Objective C objects with a specific focus on reference counting, releasing, retaining, and a quick look at autorelease pools. It’s 40 minutes long and is a great roundup of the basics of Objective C memory management. Recently we posted a list of memory management related resources, but this screencast is ideal if you want to be walked through the entry-level concepts.

Don’t get this series if you’re already flying high rolling out the iPhone apps week on week, but if you’re a newcomer to the scene, they’re a steal at $5 a pop and once you’ve got through these screencasts, you’re more than ready to jump on to Bill Dudney’s Writing Your First iPhone Application series, which offers much of the same but focused specifically on building an iPhone app.