(Ebook) Core Animation: Simplified Animation Techniques for Mac and iPhone Development by Marcus Zarra, Matt Long ISBN 9780321617750, 0321617754

(Ebook) Core Animation: Simplified Animation Techniques for Mac and iPhone Development by Marcus Zarra, Matt Long ISBN 9780321617750, 0321617754

Tried Dudney's book first and returned it because it was almost exclusively for the Mac and not iPhone - spent many pages on the animator proxy which does not exist on the iPhone. So, I was glad to see this book published by notable and knowledgeable authors. However, this one's going back to Amazon too. First of all, this book is rather expensive for only ~200 pages, much of it code and lengthy instructions on setting up projects. I assume the expense is because of the color printing on almost every page (code examples, screenshots). Second, much of this book is directed exclusively to Mac devs with only a token 18 page chapter dedicated to the iPhone that frankly does not even match the quality of documentation and examples provided by Apple (for free). Part I with Chapters 1 & 2 is good to excellent, but Chapter 3 which covers Basic Animation does not mention iPhone even once and again spends a lot of time on the Animation Proxy object. Chapter 4 discusses Keyframe Animation and does give one good example for the iPhone (there should be DOZENS of those in a book on Core Animation for the iPhone). However, Chapters 6, 7, 8 & 9 cover topics not available on the iPhone at all for a total of 78 pages (remember out of ~200 pages) for over a third of the book. Chapter 11 talks about interacting with a mouse and keyboards (again, not for an iPhone). So, I'm still waiting for a book on Core Animation for the iPhone with NO code that starts with "NSxxx" that teaches me how to make my own view transitions (e.g. like in a slide presentation), dissects multiple real-world examples of reasonable uses of animation appropriate for the iPhone using layers more, and UIView methods less, and was not first written primarily for the Mac and modified slightly to appeal to iPhone devs (Core Animation actually came first to the iPhone OS according to this book).