In this book, you will learn enough of the C and Objective-C programming languages to learn to develop applications for the Mac or for iOS devices.

Why am I going to teach you C first? Every effective Objective-C programmer needs a pretty deep understanding of C. Also, a lot of the ideas that look complicated in Objective-C have very simple roots in C. I will often introduce an idea using C and then push you toward mastery of the same idea in Objective-C.

This book was designed to be read in front of a Mac. You will read explanations of ideas and carry out hands-on experiments that will illustrate those ideas. These experiments aren’t optional. You won’t really understand the book unless you do them. The best way to learn programming is to type in code, make typos, fix your typos, and become physically familiar with the patterns of the language. Just reading code and understanding the ideas in theory won’t do much for you and your skills.

For even more practice, there are exercises called Challenges at the end of each chapter. These exercises provide additional practice and will make you more confident of what you’ve just learned. I strongly suggest you do as many of the Challenges as you can.

You will also see sections called For the More Curious at the end of some chapters. These are more in-depth explanations of the topics covered in the chapter. They are not absolutely essential to get you where you’re going, but I hope you’ll find them interesting and useful.

Big Nerd Ranch hosts a forum where readers discuss this book and the exercises in it. You can find it at http://forums.bignerdranch.com/.

You will find this book and programming in general much more pleasant if you know how to touch-type. Touch-typing, besides being much faster, enables you to look at your screen and book instead of at the keyboard. This makes it much easier to catch your errors as they happen. It is a skill that will serve you well for your entire career.