Book Status Update

After a frank discussion with Peachpit and an overwhelmingly positive response on Twitter, we’ve decided to delay the book a month or so to include Xcode 4.1.

Version 4.1 will be released alongside Mac OS X Lion sometime in July and sports some new features, bug fixes, and a few retooled UI elements. It was a hard decision mainly due to author project fatigue (otherwise known as “I-really-want-to-finish-this-book-itis”). The deciding factor was that the book might very well have been outdated before it even hit the shelves had we stuck with our original print date. It was also the myriad little things: bug fixes, stuff that appeared to be missing for no good reason, stuff that was there but did apparently nothing, and so on.

To see a list of updates, follow this link (NDA topics – paid ADC membership required): http://xcodebook.com/whatsnew

From a business standpoint, it makes more sense. Those who might be rushing to print to be first run the same risk of being outdated before their books hit the shelves. They might be the first Xcode 4 books but they’ll also be the first outdated Xcode 4 books. All of you (except one) who responded to a plea for opinions were very clear that you’d rather wait for a book that’s not immediately outdated. What of 4.2? There’s no doubt some neat stuff is coming down the pipeline in 4.2, but it won’t be released until iOS 5 arrives in the Fall of 2011. That’s definitely too long to wait (see “business sense”) so unfortunately the 4.2 stuff won’t be in the first edition of the book. There’s always room for future editions, however.

So there you have it. It’ll be a bit longer but well worth the wait. Thank you all for your input and support and especially for your patience and understanding.