iOS Started programming

[smitty8202]

So yesterday I started the iOS foundations course on bitfountain.io. Having no programming background what so ever so far this course is great. very small short vidoes that really break everything down. I am really excited to continue to learn and hopefully one day have apps of my own in the app store or work for a company making apps. just thought I would share with you guys.

 

[DrMotownMac]

I'm right there with you, smitty8202! Although, I've been starting and stopping my programming learning adventure for about 3 years now...but I finally have a reprieve from my "day job" and have a bit more time at night to work on my programming courses/books/videos/practice. My advice, and I believe others will agree with me here: (1) Devote at least a little time (even just 30-60 minutes) each day to programming. Whether it's reading, watching videos or most importantly, practice programming, and (2) Keep plugging away every day without stopping. Every time I stop learning and take a break, it turns from a week into several months, and then I feel like I go back to the beginning when I take it up again. So, just keep working at it. Eventually, you'll be programming for real!

 

[DrMotownMac]

By the way, I don't know if you're like me or not, but don't you find the process of learning how to program...ENLIGHTENING, in some way? It's like we're finally being allowed to see what the Wizard of Oz is doing behind that curtain! How do people make these amazing devices do our bidding in a way which seems so simple? When people ask me why, at the age of 49, do you want to cut back on your established medical practice to learn how to be a programmer or a "coder," I simply say, "Because it's AWESOME! Why wouldn't everyone want to do it?" What I can't understand is why more people aren't as fascinated by programming as I am. I could spend all day and night tinkering with computers, electronics, robots, programming, "hacking", and I'd give almost anything to have a basement/man cave set-up with a huge work table, several Mac Pros, a few 27 inch monitors, and throw in a couple of oscilloscopes, some random logic boards, a soldering iron, a big white dry-erase board, and 1970s classic rock playing in the background. Oh, and don't forget the empty 2 liter bottles of Mountain Dew, Doritos bags and pizza boxes lying around on the floor. Now, maybe I've just seen "Pirates of Silicon Valley" one too many times, but I'd love to have a taste of the über computer geek lifestyle!

 

[AxoNeuron]

Good job! Good choice for a course too, Bitfountain is excellent. That's how I learned how to program back in the days of Objective-C right when Bitfountain started.

Make sure to take a lot of notes. For every minute of course video I spent at least 5 minutes taking really organized, detailed notes. Use Google Docs or something so you can easily paste formatted code.

Also, never copy and paste code if you don't know what it does. Writing it all out by hand, even if repetitive, does wonders for remembering things.

Also, don't stick strictly to the course. Every now and then I would take a break and start my own little project to experiment and play around with the things I had learned recently. Have fun! Once when I first started I took a break for a few weeks and built a really cool app to simulate the gravitational effects of the planets and their influences on each other, I learned a hell of a lot from it and it was a lot of fun. The world is your oyster. That's the best advice I can offer.

The hardest part is the very beginning, when you're learning the supposedly 'simple' concepts of primitives, pointers, functions, etc. Those are actually the most difficult concepts you'll ever learn - everything else is based on those things.

Now several years later I'm a programmer at a really cool startup, have my own office and stock options, and I get to build a LOT of cool stuff. I've really explored all sorts of fields, building neural networks, scalable backend servers, etc. the sky is the limit! My educational background isn't in CS either, I went for biology. All that matters is that you work at it.

 

[1458279]

What kind of goals do you have? What kind of apps are you looking to make? What language did you pick?

Most pick Xcode with Swift or Objective C, or Unity for games.

Swift might end up being used on Android. That was talked about a while back and would be a huge bonus.

 

[smitty8202]

Good job! Good choice for a course too, Bitfountain is excellent. That's how I learned how to program back in the days of Objective-C right when Bitfountain started.

Make sure to take a lot of notes. For every minute of course video I spent at least 5 minutes taking really organized, detailed notes. Use Google Docs or something so you can easily paste formatted code.

Also, never copy and paste code if you don't know what it does. Writing it all out by hand, even if repetitive, does wonders for remembering things.

Also, don't stick strictly to the course. Every now and then I would take a break and start my own little project to experiment and play around with the things I had learned recently. Have fun! Once when I first started I took a break for a few weeks and built a really cool app to simulate the gravitational effects of the planets and their influences on each other, I learned a hell of a lot from it and it was a lot of fun. The world is your oyster. That's the best advice I can offer.

The hardest part is the very beginning, when you're learning the supposedly 'simple' concepts of primitives, pointers, functions, etc. Those are actually the most difficult concepts you'll ever learn - everything else is based on those things.

Now several years later I'm a programmer at a really cool startup, have my own office and stock options, and I get to build a LOT of cool stuff. I've really explored all sorts of fields, building neural networks, scalable backend servers, etc. the sky is the limit! My educational background isn't in CS either, I went for biology. All that matters is that you work at it.

notes are key for me but once i do something 2 or 3 time i have it down pretty good and can do it from memory. i messed up on a part of the app I'm making for the course i don't know how to delete it to redo it so i just deleted the whole file and started over only had to re watch a few of the lessons to do it but everything is going good now. just have to stay focused and dedicate time to learning and messing around in Xcode.

 

[tyche]

It's great to hear you're making progress. Take it slow and steady at the beginning as you absorb lots of new concepts and syntax. I'll just repeat myself from your other topic now that you've started and mention having to redo a project.

"Another key to successful programming is source control. This might seem unnecessary when starting out but it's actually a powerful tool to keep you on the right track as well as building a critical skill set. Git is integrated into XCode so take some time learning how to use that. Learn its basics and use them. You will thank yourself after making some big code mistakes or mess up your UI constraints / stackviews and have to re-do the whole thing. Instead, you can click a button and go back to your last working version"

 

[firewood]

Take your time. A typical AA degree in CS or software engineering would be somewhere on the order of at least 50 credit hours, around 2000 hours of classroom time plus reading and homework projects. And that's below the minimum education that many companies would require for an entry level programming job (although many kids gain a high level of skill by putting in that many and more hours of coding hard projects before college.)

Taking a first aid class may save someone's life, but won't make you an competent emergency room physician.