This is the first review I've written on amazon, even though I have bought tons of stuff here, both great and awful. I decided to get on and write on for this book because it's one of the best purchases I've made with respect to nonfiction programmer references, if not the best. It's a near-perfect example of the way a programming book should be written, in my opinion, and I reference this book all the time. It is the most "reusable" book on cocoa development that I own, by that I mean - I can reference it over and over for various projects and goals, always finding something of use in the book. Because the author takes a more conceptual approach (design patterns) it results in a deeper understanding (at least for me) of these patterns and how to implement them in my own work.



Thus, I wanted to make sure everyone who is looking for a book that covers these topics (and it should be everyone who is learning cocoa - the patterns are extremely ubiquitous, and they are absolutely, absolutely concepts every good cocoa programmer should be very familiar with).



It's written incredibly well, in an easy-to-follow and easy-to-understand manner - I can quickly get through a chapter, or reference one when I need to brush up, extremely quickly and without having to spend a bunch of time going through filler material like I sometimes have to do with other programming reference books I own. I'm very cautious about buying programming references because you truly never know what you're going to get, or if it really ends up applying to you, as they vary so much in the way they are written and the skill level for which they are written. I found this book, though, to be accessible but not written in a way that doesn't assume the reader is both a novice and dumb (something I seem to find way too often).



Great book, great book. Mine is worn out from all the use it has gotten, I have notes scribbled throughout, and I find myself sticking it in my backpack and carrying it everywhere; I think if you want to write good code, clean code, *reusable code*, and want/need a good model of the best route to take, get this book. Even if you understand conceptually how a lot of these things are done (I did, for the most part, when I bought the book), it really helps to have it in this format (and in the way the author took writing the book) because he does an incredible job of getting to the core of _what you need and why you need it_ - so you both never forget a key item in a certain implementation goal, and you take the best route to get what you want from the design pattern. It gives me a great deal of reassurance as I write my code with the goal of reusability and writing great code, that I'm doing so in the best possible way. A 5 star book if there ever was one.