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Review
Book: Learning REALbasic Through Applications
Issue: 1.3 (December/January 2002)
Author: Marc Zeedar
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 3,696
Starting Page Number: 10
RBD Number: 1307
Resource File(s): None
Related Web Link(s):
http://www.applelinks.com/rbu/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584502061/
http://www.charlesriver.com/
Known Limitations: None
Full text of article...
If you're new to REALbasic or to programming, you might find the unique approach to teaching in Learning REALbasic Through Applications just what you need.
Its method of teaching you about REALbasic is similar to that of REALbasic University (http://www.applelinks.com/rbu/) in the sense that you build real applications and learn as part of that process.
Each chapter is devoted to creating a different kind of application. There are 22 chapters in the book, though a few cheat and just have you build a demo instead of a real program.
Among the lessons, you build an MP3 player, a calcuator, a screen saver, a movie database, a slot machine game, and an encryption program. You also create programs that use sprites, OpenGL and 3D graphics, text-to-speech, and others. The book comes with a CD that includes demos of REALbasic and all the book's projects, so you don't have to type in any code.
The broad variety of programs is excellent: you almost certainly will find a project here that's similar to something you're wanting to do. For instance, if you haven't worked with 3D graphics before, you could experiment with the 3D graphics project and learn some techniques you could use in your own programs.
However, the majority of the projects are rather basic. Most have minimal interfaces and are of the "takes ten minutes to create" variety. There's very little here you'd want to use in real life: these are just samples of things you can do with REALbasic.
Still, the step-by-step teaching style and approach is excellent for REALbasic beginners. Intermediate users might find some projects helpful, especially in areas they're unfamiliar with, but some will wish for more advanced tips and solutions to more complicated problems. Advanced users will find little here they do not already know.
The book is 304 pages plus about 50 pages of appendixes and the index. Some of the appendixes are helpful, such as the ASCII chart, internet references, REALbasic quick reference, and a list of text encodings values. The index is competent, but not great (it's only 7 pages).
For new programmers or those new to REALbasic, this book is an excellent starter, though you'll grow out of it quickly. It's also a little expensive. Since it's not a reference book, you'll rarely need to go back to it again, unless there are projects you skipped the first time that you later need. It goes well as a companion book to Matt Neuburg's REALbasic: The Definitive Guide.
In Brief Product Learning REALbasic Through Applications Author Clayton E. Crooks II Publisher Charles River Media Price $41.95 System Requirements Mac 8.5/9 or Mac OS X Contact Info http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584502061/
http://www.charlesriver.com/
Pros Unique approach to learning REALbasic; nice variety of projects Cons Projects are elementary; targeted to beginners Rating (1.0-5.0): 4.0
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Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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