Peach or Pumpkin?

Rather than catching up on sleep after we finished writing the first edition of Pro Core Data for iOS, Michael Privat and I have been working both on the second edition of that book and on another book: Beginning Mac OS X Lion Apps Development
. It’s been a much different kind of project: we build a single application throughout the book, adding functionality to illustrate different aspects of OS X application development as we go. Sometimes it’s a challenge to stay at beginner level while still building a useful application that will eventually end up in the App Store, so we’ll be interested to watch reader feedback.

I decided to check Amazon today to see if the book was there yet, and indeed it was. This is actually our first opportunity to see the cover art, and I was interested to see what fruit Apress had selected. They’ve already used all the obvious fruits, so I expected something exotic. When we first saw the cover of our Core Data book, we had to ask Apress what it fruit it was (it’s a dragonfruit). Now, I’m similarly befuddled: the fruit on the Lion book is colored like a peach but shaped like a pumpkin. Anyone know what that is?

My Review of Optimizing Tables in iPhone Apps

Originally submitted at O’Reilly

Any experienced iPhone programmer understands that you can't build much in the way of complex user interfaces without tables. Every time you throw together a lengthy list view, tables are a concern. More than that, the stock manner of rendering tables is performance-intensive and results in …

Optimizing Tables in iPhone Apps

Well-done and Informative

By iOS Developer from Jacksonville, FL on 7/6/2011

 

5out of 5

Pros: Easy to understand, Concise, Helpful examples, Well-written, Accurate

Best Uses: Novice, Intermediate

Describe Yourself: Developer

I’ve been using tables for awhile with iOS development, so I wasn’t sure if I’d learn anything. I learned a few things, and am eager to go back to some existing apps and optimize the tables. The videos are well done and show a nice mix of source code, talking heads, explanations, running code (both simulator and device). I’m glad I watched these. BTW, the source code issue must have been rectified after the other reviews were written, because I got source code.

Note that these were done on Xcode 3, so novices on Xcode 4 might get tripped up in spots.

(legalese)