Acknowledgments

When asked whether I would like to write a book about Objective-C, I instantly became excited. I had already read other books in this series and knew that the task of creating one for Objective-C would be a challenge. But with the help of many people, this book became a reality.

Much inspiration for this book has come from the many excellent blogs that are dedicated to Objective-C. Mike Ash, Matt Gallagher, and “bbum” are a few of the individuals whose blogs I read. These blogs have helped me over the years to gain a deeper understanding of the language. NSHipster by Mattt Thompson has also provided excellent articles that gave me food for thought while compiling this book. Finally, the excellent documentation provided by Apple has also been extremely useful.

I would not have been in a position to write this book had it not been for the excellent mentoring and knowledge transfer that happened while I was working at MX Telecom. Matthew Hodgson in particular gave me the opportunity to develop the company’s first iOS application, building on top of a mature C++ code base. The knowledge I picked up from this project formed the basis of much of my subsequent work.

Over the years, I have had many excellent colleagues with whom I have always stayed in touch either for academic reasons or purely just being there for a beer and a chat. All have helped me while writing this book.

I’ve had a fantastic experience with the team from Pearson. Trina MacDonald, Olivia Basegio, Scott Meyers, and Chris Zahn have all provided help and encouragement when required. They have provided the tools for me to get the book written without distraction and answered my queries when necessary.

The technical editors I have had the pleasure of working with have been incredibly helpful. Their eagle eyes have pushed the content of the book to be the very best. They should all be proud of the level of detail they used when analyzing the manuscript.

Finally, I could not have written this book without the understanding and support from Helen. Our first child was born the day I was supposed to start writing, so I naturally postponed for a short time. Both Helen and Rosie have been fantastic at keeping me going throughout.