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iOS Learning to code...

S

SR71

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 12, 2011
1,606
373
Boston, MA
So, I want to learn to code iPhone/iPad apps, but do not know anything about coding. I would like to learn from step 1. Can anyone give me some guides, links, tutorials, etc.? I want to learn from the basics and work my way up to coding iOS apps.

Thanks!
 
SR&!

I'll offer my suggestion, while I am somewhat new to IPHONE programming, have a lot of patience and be prepared to tear your code apart and do it again. Currently I have worked on two apps and the first one me and my partner tore apart our code at least 200 times.

Another suggestion is that when you have something working, save the code be it in word pad, google docs, or a text editor of your choice that way you can refer back to it and spend time examining it without messing up the code.

Enjoy your time coding, its frustrating but oh so rewarding when you get something to work or you understand something that you didn't before.

RON
 
dejo said:
Did you have absolutely no programming experience before you started there? If so, was it pretty hard to follow those lectures at first? Cuz even that course has some prerequisites.
Click to expand...

That is true. I had some basic programming knowledge. This included 1.5 semesters of introductory C++, about a year of VB.net experience, and some other random stuff like a little bit of ruby.

All in all though, I wouldn't say that much of that really helped. The C++ helped to understand some basic concepts, but I think what really helped is watching the lectures WHILE doing the coding (this involved watching the lectures on my iPad and working on my computer, because switching between the video and XCode on the same computer would be cumbersome and probably cause you to miss things.

I also really liked www.raywenderlich.com - it has a set of tutorials that are examples from his book, and they have helped me when I am trying to learn a specific concept or strategy
 
SR71 said:
So, I want to learn to code iPhone/iPad apps, but do not know anything about coding. I would like to learn from step 1. Can anyone give me some guides, links, tutorials, etc.? I want to learn from the basics and work my way up to coding iOS apps.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

There are two steps:
1 - Learn C
2 - Learn everything else (Obj-C, iOS SDK, and Xcode... I'm hoping to make it easier to learn these one by one rather than all at once in my book... if I ever finish my book...)

For step 1, I suggest Learn C The Hard Way. It's a free ebook. Google it. I can't remember the exact chapter numbers, but it seems like the first 30 or so are useful if I remember correctly. Beyond some point it gets really ugly, and, AFAICT, useless for iOS development.

For step 2, I suggest the Stanford iOS development lectures available for free on iTunes U.
 
Don't bother with the Stanford iPhone course, or any iPhone or Objective C textbook for that matter.

Learn basic programming first. Any computer language. It's typically a one full semester college course, and not an easy one. Or get a textbook and do the programming problems. Lots.

When you get though that, then learn Objective C and iOS development. Neither of them was designed as a optimal teaching platform. So learn them 2nd (or 3rd, etc.)
 
firewood said:
Don't bother with the Stanford iPhone course, or any iPhone or Objective C textbook for that matter.

Learn basic programming first. Any computer language. It's typically a one full semester college course, and not an easy one. Or get a textbook and do the programming problems. Lots.

When you get though that, then learn Objective C and iOS development. Neither of them was designed as a optimal teaching platform. So learn them 2nd (or 3rd, etc.)
Click to expand...


Alternately, you can try a book like "Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide" by Aaron Hillegass. It teaches you programming from the ground up, starting with C, and working into Objective C. It has a decent number of exercises. The author has an easygoing style and the pace seems easy to follow. I bought it because I've been looking into teaching iOS development classes.

Once you've completed that book and done all the exercises, you'd be ready for a book that teaches you iOS development.
 
Duncan C said:
Alternately, you can try a book like "Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide" by Aaron Hillegass. It teaches you programming from the ground up...
Click to expand...

"Programming in Objective-C" by Stephen G. Kochan uses a similar approach. He assumes no previous programming experience. (Stephen also is a member of these very forums.)
 
dejo said:
"Programming in Objective-C" by Stephen G. Kochan uses a similar approach. He assumes no previous programming experience. (Stephen also is a member of these very forums.)
Click to expand...

I started with that book and got totally confused. If you have no experience at all even simple concepts are hard to understand. I read / struggled with "Learn C on the Mac" which was a great book in the end. But after I took the Pascal class at city college it totally opened up my eyes and filled in the blanks.

I say slowly learn C and make C programs. Then move to an Object C book like mentioned. At that point I understood object C books better.
 
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