macOS Developing a note taking app from scratch

[mkmDesign]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice and hoping someone here will be able to help. I'm about to start my final year at university (I'm currently studying Computing) and one of the modules I will be taking is simply named 'Programming Project' where the main objective is to develop a substantial piece of software. We are free to develop any kind of software using any platform/language we wish and I'm looking to create an OS X app. I've never done any OS X or iOS development work before so I'm worried this might be a bit much for me.

My background is mainly in C# and I've done some C++ work before as well. I have started learning Objective-C and still have another 5 weeks before I start Uni so I feel I have time to get familiar with the language, what I'm not sure on is using the Cocoa framework to actually develop a useful application. My plan is to create a note taking app for students, something along the lines of CoureseNotes (http://www.coursenotesapp.com/cn-mac/). I would like the user to be able to create notes for all the relevant subjects they are studying and be able to organize them, edit etc. Please note - if I do go ahead with this I will not be submitting it to the App Store or releasing it independently. This is simply going to be for university.

So my question really is, how hard/complicated would it be to create such an app in the space of time I have (now - December)?

Many thanks,

Martyn

 

[Vsching]

Depends on complexity

Well, i didn't have time to check out the app you mention.
But a basic note taking app with the ability to organise wont be too hard to do.
So i would suggest your next step to :
i) learn more about objective c, categories, delegation, keyvalueobserving, etc
ii) decide whether you want to develop ipad or mac version, although their language is the same, their framework got some differences.
iii) learn about core data, for modelling your data structure
iv) write a list of requirements, come out with a simple must have list first, then other good to have list, so you can concentrate on todo first and work on the extras if got enough time.
vi) before start developing your app, take sometime to check what other things you need to learn, and check on opensource libraries, i.e cocoacontrols.com

have fun, Cheers

 

[mkmDesign]

Thanks for the advice Vsching