Learning Objective-C Begins

So I've primarily been a Java and Web Application Developer for the past ten years. Seeing how it was always easy to find new technologies/strategies/methodologies to learn in the Java world, I never gave serious thoughts on trying to focus on other languages. I still think I could work in Java for the next 10 years and still not get bored or run out of things to learn.

However the realities of my situation have motivated me to at least explore learning Objective-C and developing something for the Apple platforms.

1. I own a very powerful Mac Pro and an IPod Touch. I love them both and don't see me switching to a Windows or any other OS ever again. Aside from my day to day hacking, I seem to be squandering an opportunity to really make use of this hardware at my disposal.
2. I am currently not employed. Most likely I have the entire summer to try anything else other than what an employer needs from me.

So I've waded into the shallow end and it is not bad at all. First up were the Coding in Objective-C screencasts by Bill Dudney over at Pragmatic Bookshelf. Bill does a good job with these and I breezed through without any problem. Next I picked up Programming in Objective-C 2.0 by Stephan Kochan. It's always nice to have a reference like this on hand in hard copy. I've gone through the first couple chapters and the book is showing me exactly what I need to know.

First impressions are Objective-C is not that difficult to get started in. I am really impressed with the power of Apple's XCode IDE as well. I regret not making the time to start playing with it sooner. This looks like it is going to be fun.

Integrate Mac OSX Address Book and Thunderbird

Since I have an Ipod Touch, I pretty much have to store my contacts in Mac OSX Address Book application so that they can sync to my device. Problem is, I also prefer Mozilla Thunderbird to handle my email. When I had looked in Sept 2007 ( when i got my Mac Pro ) there was no easy way to have my contacts in Address Book available to Thunderbird. In fact there was a bug open since 2003. Hoping this has been addressed (no pun intended), I did a quick Google and found that there is now a way... and actually there had been for a long time which either I missed or ignored before. A good summary of options to share address books with Thunderbird is here.

Since the release of Thunderbird 3 in 2008 never happened, I am left with the choice to install beta2, one of the nightlies, or build from scratch myself. The nightlies are found here.

I downloaded the May 30 nightly, but I have not decided to give it a whack yet. If I do I'll post back to let you know my experience.