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avg1000

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 29, 2012
1
0
Hey. I want to start learning to program for iPhone Apps. How did you guys first start learning? Books, websites, anything? Any help will be highly appreciated?
 

Ides

macrumors member
Mar 27, 2012
95
0
Starting Out

First, you should join the apple developer program. Theres a free version and a paid version. The paid version gives you the latest SDK, and lets you develop apps on actual devices and put apps on the app store. It costs $99/yr. The free version gives you a slightly older iphone/ipad SDK, and you can't put apps on devices.

I recommend you join the free version and see how you like it. If you are doing well you can always upgrade to the paid version. After you join simply download and install the SDK (the dev center will have instructions). The SDK comes with powerful tools for creating apps, Xcode being the most important.

The native language for iphone apps is objective-c. It's a subset of the C programming language. I recommend that you learn at least some basic C first before tackling Objective-C. There are great tutorials all over the web. You can buy books if you want to, but it's not always necessary.

Edit: Sorry, my bad. Super set of C. Thanks dejo :)
 
Last edited:

1458279

Suspended
May 1, 2010
1,601
1,521
California
I really like the iTunesU, they have the WWDC2012, Stanford and other videos there.

You also don't have to buy a test device, you can use the simulator built into the Xcode development platform. Sooner or later you'll want a live device to test on, the $99/year allows you to have several test devices, I use two iPT and will likely get an iPad for testing the apps on.

Big Nerd Ranch has a very good book on app dev, and there's a thread here on this forum that posts sales on other books.

You might want to pay attention to the dates and versions because things can and have changed quickly. Books can be outdated in just a year or two. Not always a huge problem, really depends on what you're looking to do.
 

askpi

macrumors member
Apr 5, 2012
39
0
I started learning iOS development through a Stanford Course by Paul Hegarty available in iTunesU.
 

Hexiii

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2011
1,113
373
Prague, Czech Republic
To me, a subset would indicate less not more. Objective-C is certainly more than just C!

It certainly is, but it's either:

1) C is just basic language whereas Obj-C contains a lot more things

or

2) C is the main language and then it divides into C++, Obj-C etc...

I don't argue with you that it is not a superset, just why some people write the opposite.
 

PhoneyDeveloper

macrumors 68040
Sep 2, 2008
3,114
93
C++ and Objective-C both extend the C language. They are both supersets of C. A valid C program is also a valid C++ and Objective-C program. The reverse is not the case.

By contrast, Java is a C-based language. Meaning that the Java language has a syntax that is based on the syntax of C. But Java compilers won't compile C programs. Java isn't a superset of C.
 
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