Apple Launches iPhone Developer Tech Talks

[lucasgladding]

I'm not trying to start a war. I work in a small software development shop that builds multiple software products that cost $10k+. I know dozens of languages and tend to pick them up very quickly. I probably learned the vast majority of C# and Java each in less than a month. Cocoa and Objective-C just aren't nearly as easy to work with as these new generation languages. I work with self-admitted Apple fanboi's who say the same thing. The Interface Builder is very good under the circumstances (especially compared to other mobile platforms), but the whole process in general requires too much handholding in general including memory management, the terrible wrapper around SQLLite, etc.

Agreed that a war isn't necessary here .

I think my advantage comes from the fact that Objective C/C was the first language I ever worked with. I have gained experience with a number of other languages since then, but still find myself most at home with Objective C. Regarding memory management, garbage collection in ObjC 2 is an improvement and I suspect will become part of the iPhone OS when hardware upgrades remove some of the resource constraints. I think there is some benefit in knowing the basics of memory management in ObjC. There is some ambiguity about which initialization methods return objects that are autoreleased, but in general the concepts just take some practice and organization.

You bring up a very interesting point in concluding. Does anyone know why most authors ignore NSCoder with iPhone programming? I agree that the SQLite wrappers are seriously lacking and am surprised that they are often taught as the only way to implement any filesystem for the iPhone. I implemented NSCoder for my application and have not had any problems with lost data from users (to my knowledge). In additional, they save an incredible amount of development time IMHO.

In any case, I would highly recommend the Tech Talks to anyone starting. I attended the Leopard Tech Talks and was very happy with the seminars. You can't expect much more than a primer on each topic, but I walked away from most sessions learning at least a few things. For networking alone, it's a great event.

 

[Palad1]

I registered to the London event yesterday evening, got the 'confirmation of request' email...

Anyone got any acceptance yet?

Cheers,
Palad1

 

[happydude]

If there were one in Madison, or one in Chicago not on a Wednesday, I would totally go. That would be awesome

but aren't you going to be sick that day? *cough cough* oh, man, sorry, boss, i gotta head home, feeling feverish . . .

 

[magi.sys]

anyone notice that the NDA is gone???

 

[kurono]

Objective-C and Cocoa vs. ...

Thanks for your posts, lucasgladding and saturniphone

It's half a year that I started with Objective-C and Cocoa and I find the learning curve rather steep.
But it's the first framework that I got into and there were continuously small rewards when seeing some beauty in it.

I'm really looking forward to getting one of the new MacBooks (Pro) and putting Vista on it and then getting some of the basics of how to develop with C# and .Net.
I mean, I'm not interested in using Windows. I'm just interested in doing this comparison myself of how hard it is to develop some application using this "new" technology.
Maybe I'm going to meet an experienced developer this winter and I can challenge him with my idea of this (small) app and then watch how he does it with .Net.


But for now and for others I would also see this motivational factor as more important.
So I'm continuing with Cocoa and don't really believe that the Makers of Software like MS Office which in no way never impressed me, those who prevent solid exchangable standards, are capable of making a Framework that good that I would feel bad when having to stick to Cocoa to be able to do Mac Software.
Maybe .Net is very different and some tasks are much easier and maybe it's even a lot easier getting some app together, but for the long run even with my total lack of experience I think it's important to have something that makes good application design possible.

thanks for reading

 

[Lextar]

I'm also a developer who is new to Objective C and Cocoa. I did a lot of programming in Java (Web Development with Java Server Faces), Delphi (database apps), C# (Windows Mobile), C++ (MFC and Qt), PHP and the occasional JavaScript, Perl and Python when I needed to. That said I usually pick up languages very fast. Objective C is just different. All the languages I mentioned use a similar syntax for method calls:

C++:

object->method(parameters);

Java, C#, Delphi:

object.method(parameters);

Objective C:

[object method: parameter];

Well, the scripting languages are a bit different, but Objective C doesn't even call it methods - you send messages. They use different terms: protocols, forwarding, categories. This is new to most developers and so it takes a bit longer to get used to.

I'm sure that it comes natural if it was your first programming language - but for most of us it's not.

But, after I used the frameworks for a while I really came to appreciate the beauty of Objective C and Cocoa - but still I would rather use Java as I spent much more time on it.


Btw: Has anyone else a problem with messages in Objective C?

I often don't know how many calls I need in one line. So, how many "[" do I write? This is the thing that I really don't like about the language - and the German keyboard layout doesn't help (Alt-5 for "[" and Alt-6 for "]").


To sum it up: "Think different!"

 

[lucasgladding]

I often don't know how many calls I need in one line. So, how many "[" do I write? This is the thing that I really don't like about the language - and the German keyboard layout doesn't help (Alt-5 for "[" and Alt-6 for "]").

Try using TextMate instead of Xcode . It will auto-insert your starting bracket. I typically use Xcode, but I know some prefer TextMate primarily for this reason.

Kind regards

 

[kainjow]

Well, the scripting languages are a bit different, but Objective C doesn't even call it methods - you send messages. They use different terms: protocols, forwarding, categories. This is new to most developers and so it takes a bit longer to get used to.

You don't need to know the internal structure 99.99% of the time (but you do need to understand selectors). You're still just calling methods on objects with multiple arguments. Same concept, different syntax.

I'm sure that it comes natural if it was your first programming language - but for most of us it's not.

I was lucky to learn it at a young (relatively) age, while my brain was still being molded

But, after I used the frameworks for a while I really came to appreciate the beauty of Objective C and Cocoa - but still I would rather use Java as I spent much more time on it.

There was a supported Java-Cocoa bindings but they dropped it recently (may have been 10.4) because AFAIK not many people were using it.

Btw: Has anyone else a problem with messages in Objective C?

I often don't know how many calls I need in one line. So, how many "[" do I write? This is the thing that I really don't like about the language - and the German keyboard layout doesn't help (Alt-5 for "[" and Alt-6 for "]").

I don't understand your question.

anyone notice that the NDA is gone???

Yes

 

[rhett7660]

How about make these available on Podcasts so I don't have to go to the class.

That is what I am talking about. Make it available for people who are no where near any of the locations they plan on stopping by at.

 

[saturniphone]

Objective C is just different.

I think that pretty much sums it up. I think Microsoft gets a lot of grief for pushing closed standards and languages like .NET, but in reality Apple does it too. From what I understand the newest version of Objective C is much better, but I remain skeptical.

Apple has a massive head start with the iPhone compared to Android. However, I really think that without a lot of changes I don't see how Apple can maintain their strangehold. Android is so open in terms of the target hardware, development hardware, distribution system, and coding language. Right now you need a Mac with Leopard to develop for the iPhone and that's just not going to work forever when alternatives spring up.

I really look forward to getting an actual book (something I never do) to learn more about the iPhone SDK. It's just too steep of a learning curve on my own at this point in my life.

 

[bytethese]

NYC filled up before I even woke up this morning. Now I need to take a plane to another city to attend. ARGGG.

It wasn't full when I signed up (I did as soon as I got the email), but I haven't received any confirmation as of yet, just an email saying "thanks for registering, nothing is set in stone yet, don't make travel plans". Hopefully they let us know soon what's up since I requested the day off work already.

 

[bytethese]

Did anybody get confirmation of acceptance? I just got a Request Received email before Chicago event was full. Chicago event is full now but I haven't received any confirmation yet saying that my registration was accepted.

Same happened for me in NY. I registered before it was full. I checked after my reservation and wasn't full. but when I check the next morning, it was full and I received a conf request saying I had registered but not that I am able to attend yet. I just emailed techtalks to ask, awaiting reply.

 

[gimikinc]

Received confirmation

I received confirmation for the San Francisco location on Tuesday. I put my companies' name in the registration which may of helped vs. just saying "indepedent" or "N/A".

I registered to the London event yesterday evening, got the 'confirmation of request' email...

Anyone got any acceptance yet?

Cheers,
Palad1

 

[iSaga]

Just received my confirmation for Copenhagen, took a couple weeks but finally got it and I am in. Anyone else going to Copenhagen?

 

[kainjow]

I received my confirmation the other day for Toronto. I'm psyched