Mastering macOS Programming

Key Features

Learn to harness the power of macOS with the elegance of the Swift programming language
Become highly competent in building apps on the macOS platform
Get the most in-depth guide with a hands-on approach on the latest version of macOS

Book Description

macOS continues to lead the way in desktop operating systems, with its tight integration across the Apple ecosystem of platforms and devices. With this book, you will get an in-depth knowledge of working on macOS, enabling you to unleash the full potential of the latest version using Swift 3 to build applications.

This book will help you broaden your horizons by taking your programming skills to next level. The initial chapters will show you all about the environment that surrounds a developer at the start of a project. It introduces you to the new features that Swift 3 and Xcode 8 offers and also covers the common design patterns that you need to know for planning anything more than trivial projects. You will then learn the advanced Swift programming concepts, including memory management, generics, protocol orientated and functional programming and with this knowledge you will be able to tackle the next several chapters that deal with Apple's own Cocoa frameworks. It also covers AppKit, Foundation, and Core Data in detail which is a part of the Cocoa umbrella framework. The rest of the book will cover the challenges posed by asynchronous programming, error handling, debugging, and many other areas that are an indispensable part of producing software in a professional environment.

By the end of this book, you will be well acquainted with Swift, Cocoa, and AppKit, as well as a plethora of other essential tools, and you will be ready to tackle much more complex and advanced software projects.

What You Will Learn

Combine beautiful design with robust code for the very best user experience
Bring the best coding practices to the new macOS Sierra
See what's new in Swift 3.0 and how best to leverage the Swift language
Master Apple's tools, including Xcode, Interface Builder, and Instruments
Use Unix and other common command-line tools to increase productivity
Explore the essential Cocoa frameworks, including networking, animation, audio, and video

About the Author

Stuart Grimshaw has programmed for Apple computers since the days before OS X and has been involved with developing for the Apple Watch since its release. Born in the UK and having lived in Germany and the Netherlands, he is currently a freelance iOS/tvOS/macOS developer in Auckland, New Zealand, where he works on some of Australia-New Zealand's largest video and TV delivery apps and leads the research and development of both watchOS and tvOS applications. He is passionate about the potential of the Apple Watch and Apple TV, as well as Apple's Swift programming language, and is a keen proponent of beach coding.

Table of Contents

Hello macOS
Basic Swift
Checking Out the Power of Xcode
MVC and Other Design Patterns
Advanced Swift
Cocoa Frameworks: The Backbone of Your App
Creating Views Programmatically
Strings, Text, and Fonts
Get More from Interface Buillder
Drawing on the Strength of Core Graphics
Moving to Core Animation
Handling Errors Gracefully
On-device and Cloud Storage
The Benefit of Core Data
Connect to the World: Networking
Concurrency and Asynchronous Programming
Understanding Xcode's Debugging tools
LLDB and the Command Line
Deploying Third-party SDKs and Framework
Build and Distribution