According to Apple, "The Cocoa application environment is designed specifically for Mac OS X-only native applications. It is comprised of a set of object-oriented frameworks that support rapid development and high productivity. The Cocoa frameworks include a full-featured set of classes designed to create robust and powerful Mac OS X applications. The object-oriented design simplifies application development and debugging." Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, 2/e teaches programmers and developers all the tools for Cocoa development. This book has a strong tutorial format and is completely updated for Mac OS X 10.2. The reader is guided through writing five applications and an InterfaceBuilder palette. Each project teaches several new ideas. As a new concept or technique is introduced, the text describes it in detail. This book will cover in depth the following topics: Cocoa: What is it? Where did it come from; ProjectBuilder, Objective-C, Controls, Archiving, Helper Objects, Multiple nibs, Getting and Setting User Defaults, Using Notifications, Custom Views, Responders and Keyboard events, Creating InterfaceBuilder Palettes, NSTimer, Updating Menus, Working with NSTextView and Using Java with Cocoa. </P>

Aaron Hillegas，曾就职于Next和Apple，现在在Big Nerd Ranch主讲Cocoa编程。第一套OpenStep（Cocoa的前身）教程即出自其手。本书基于Aaron在Big Nerd Ranch的教学内容，并融入了他在OpenStep和Cocoa方面15年的工作经验。