iOS Another newbie

[andrewcsp]

Hello,

I'm interested in learning how to develop iOS applications and I wondered if anyone here could recommend courses in the UK (London).

I've heard Amsys offer good courses and certification schemes for Mac OSX. How good are they when it comes to iOS training?

The Amsys one I'm talking about is: http://www.amsys.co.uk/course/learn-ios-5-sdk-development/

A bit of background about me...

• I'm a web developer, and have been working mainly with PHP (and a little C#) for the past 5 years.
• The first language I studied at uni was Java. Although I'm a little rusty with my Object Oriented programming now!
• I did one course of C a long long time ago, but that is a distant memory now!

I know C is often listed as a prerequisite for learning Objective C. As I'm quite comfortable with programming in general, so do you think my lack of knowledge about C will be a problem?

thanks in advance!

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I wouldn't expect the lack of more C experience to be an issue.

I'd recommend looking at Stanford's iOS programming course lectures available as free downloads via iTunes U. (Unless... has Apple changed the way iTunes U works? I honestly haven't checked in a few months but it seems like when they announced iBooks 2 they also said something about iTunes U reorganizations?)

 

[MattInOz]

Welcome Follow Newbie,
Although I'm coming from Architecture background, so object-oriented programming has always seemed to me to be the more natural programming style. Likely because it's the same problem solving style as my day job.

If you can't find a course then Kochan's book Programming in Objective-C and Programming in C are both really good. The Objective-C with teach you enough C to work in Objective-C but avoids the C's Procedural program structure in favour of an object-oriented structure. So you might try just jumping in to Objective-C.

I did find after while of getting in to my own project I was hitting walls of not knowing enough C. So did go back to the C book and worked through it as well. Still every time the exercises require procedural function creation it just reminds me of how much I disliked pascal especially for dealing with CAD objects.

 

[andrewcsp]

Thanks for your replies.

I've seen the Stanford lectures floating about on iTunes U, but haven't had a chance to look at them yet unfortunately. I'm sure that's a great starting point though.

Longer term, I wonder if formal (in person) training, like the Amsys 5 day crash course would be more beneficial?

I'd be interested to hear of anybody that's been on an Amsys iOS developer training course, (or any other UK based course).

thanks
Andrew

 

[Mark FX]

Hi Andrew.

I am also in the UK, and I did look into the Amsys course, but I came to the
conclusion that it was overpriced.

Having been using Objective-C and Xcode for about a year now, take my word
for it, your not going to learn programming iPhone or Mac apps in 5 days,
because thats the time period of the Amsys course.

I would recommend you learn from online resources like the Stanford's iOS
programming course lectures, and also from good books like the ones listed
below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Objective-C-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/0321706285/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330721730&sr=1-1-spell

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cocoa-Programming-Mac-OS-X/dp/0321774086/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330721730&sr=1-2-spell

http://www.amazon.co.uk/iOS-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/0321821521/ref=sr_1_sc_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330721730&sr=1-3-spell

Regards Mark

 

[andrewcsp]

Thanks for the links Mark.

Yes, I think the best way forward would probably be to go through the Stanford iOS series of lectures and then re-assess if I need further training of any sort.

At least that way I'd know what I'm jumping into if I decide to go on a course (Amsys or something else)

Andrew