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iOS Do I have to learn other programming languages before Objective C?
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No, you don't. Kochan's book is designed for people like you, with no experience. Though I would recommend learning some more C about midway through the book.
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You don't have to.
But, you will find well over 10 times more introductory books, websites, university courses, videos, etc. on other programming languages, written from many points of view. Plus a few of these languages were designed specifically for educational purposes, unlike Objective C. Many people fail programming courses. No current Objective C book is written with this in mind. Your odds will be a lot better, if you run into any difficulties learning, with a simpler language that has much more tutorial materials and help available.
Once your learn enough to easily write many non-trivial programs, in almost any programming language, it will be much easier to jump into Objective C and Cocoa Touch.
But, you will find well over 10 times more introductory books, websites, university courses, videos, etc. on other programming languages, written from many points of view. Plus a few of these languages were designed specifically for educational purposes, unlike Objective C. Many people fail programming courses. No current Objective C book is written with this in mind. Your odds will be a lot better, if you run into any difficulties learning, with a simpler language that has much more tutorial materials and help available.
Once your learn enough to easily write many non-trivial programs, in almost any programming language, it will be much easier to jump into Objective C and Cocoa Touch.
C, as Objective C is a superset of C.
I would still encourage you to try Objective C first and back up to C only as needed firewood makes good points, but there are still many resources for Objective C and Cocoa.
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The creator of the Objective C language claims that his inspiration for the language was Smalltalk (see Squeak and Alice for a current implementations that run on a Mac), not C. C is merely the procedural subset in the basement.
There's some really good educational materials available for Alice, suitable for kids even.
There's some really good educational materials available for Alice, suitable for kids even.
I'd be careful about learning C and trying to apply it to Objective-C too much. An understanding of C might be important, but so is understanding object-orientation, particularly the Smalltalk school of OO that Objective-C follows.
Really I think you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Wherever you start is going to give you some of the wrong ideas. Just try and learn in a way that keeps your motivation up, and try and find other Objective-C coders patient and willing enough to give you guidance.
Really I think you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Wherever you start is going to give you some of the wrong ideas. Just try and learn in a way that keeps your motivation up, and try and find other Objective-C coders patient and willing enough to give you guidance.
The closest thing to Objective-C is Objective-C itself. Just start with Kochan's book. I've gone though it myself and found it clearly explains everything you need to know.
I'll just add one more thing, as I agree with all that the others have said.
Learning is a very personal thing. The way you learn something may be different than how anyone else does it. The teaching style that resonates with you may turn someone else off, and your motivation may be very different than mine.
I agree with Harker's point that you need to do what keeps your motivation up.
Another resource that I found useful in this that is not great at teaching the details, but is great at giving you motivation to try stuff early is Stevenson's "Cocoa and Objective C: Up and Running" which is based around the tutorials found at http://cocoadevcentral.com/ in a slightly more structured format.
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Learning is a very personal thing. The way you learn something may be different than how anyone else does it. The teaching style that resonates with you may turn someone else off, and your motivation may be very different than mine.
I agree with Harker's point that you need to do what keeps your motivation up.
Another resource that I found useful in this that is not great at teaching the details, but is great at giving you motivation to try stuff early is Stevenson's "Cocoa and Objective C: Up and Running" which is based around the tutorials found at http://cocoadevcentral.com/ in a slightly more structured format.
B