for those with first hand experience, how intuitive is the sdk? i have an idea for an app but don't have that much programming experience and absolutely no experience with any of the languages apple uses... so how difficult would it be for a novice to create an app?
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how intuitive is the sdk?
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The SDK is very intuitive for someone comfortable with programming. However, there are many factors that will affect how easily a novice programmer picks it up, most of which have nothing to do with the SDK itself.
Mmm, the SDK is very easy to use.
But really, the difficulty of programming doesn't lie with the actual language or the coding itself, but the whole programming skill as a whole. Programming languages have their own syntax and way of formatting commands (like how C use printf and C++ uses cout), but the concepts are the same (you make a list/array of 100 items...not declaring 100 separate variables). The larger part lies with understanding how certain things work, such as abstract classes (which their function being about the same throughout most languages), hierarchy, and all that.
I've said this to others, if you've got an idea for an application that you would like and have an interest in trying your hand at writing it, just jump in-- register as an iPhone Developer (it's free), download and install the SDK, take a look at the sample applications, and give it a go.
The worst that happens is that you find out that nothing makes sense, the best is that you've got a great idea that you can turn into a product for others to use. Either way, you've learned something.
The problem with the concept of "intuitiveness" is that it means something different to someone who's never tried to program vs someone who's been programming for 5 years, vs someone who's been programming for 20 years.
Since everyone is different anyway, just come on in! The water's fine!
rob.
The worst that happens is that you find out that nothing makes sense, the best is that you've got a great idea that you can turn into a product for others to use. Either way, you've learned something.
The problem with the concept of "intuitiveness" is that it means something different to someone who's never tried to program vs someone who's been programming for 5 years, vs someone who's been programming for 20 years.
Since everyone is different anyway, just come on in! The water's fine!
rob.
yeah, i have already registered but i didn't realize leopard was a requirement, so that's the only thing precluding me at this point... so i'm trying to decide if it's worth upgrading
Programming as a skill should not be intuitive. I'm trying to keep some job security in the industry.
In that case install XCode on your machine and try your hand at writing something for the Mac. Largely Objective-C is Objective-C and Cocoa is very similar to Cocoa-Touch. This way, you can get your feet wet to see if programming anything is actually something you're really interested in.
rob.
Maybe you should start with making a Web-App then...with the SDK, you won't get anywhere without being able to program in C. While the keynote speech made it look super-simple, they already had a couple hundred lines of code written beforehand, they just linked that into the interface with Interface Builder.
You *could* use the iPhone to learn to program in C, there are a few examples and tons of documentation. Won't be as easy as any other platform, though, since iPhone SDK is so new - the documentation isn't setup to teach you to program (it's more of a reference guide), there of course aren't any books on it yet (there is a book on developing for jailbroken phones though) and there are only like 10 examples. But my experience is no matter how difficult the platform, you have a better chance of learning on a platform you have a passion for.
You *could* use the iPhone to learn to program in C, there are a few examples and tons of documentation. Won't be as easy as any other platform, though, since iPhone SDK is so new - the documentation isn't setup to teach you to program (it's more of a reference guide), there of course aren't any books on it yet (there is a book on developing for jailbroken phones though) and there are only like 10 examples. But my experience is no matter how difficult the platform, you have a better chance of learning on a platform you have a passion for.
If you're a student, remember you are eligible for the reduced price for Leopard, but with that comes the licensing restrictions...