iOS What do I need to begin?

[Yumunum]

Something talking just about Obj-C and not iOS would not take you all the way to iPhone development, although it would certainly help.

Be aware that the current standard for Obj-C is Obj-C 2.0... it adds in several changes (like @properties) that you'll want to know about for iPhone development, because Apple uses them a lot in iOS.

I probably wasn't clear, sorry. I was thinking of reading all 3, not one out of the 3.

Does the book not teach Obj-C 2.0? It mentions it in the description but it's hard to see what he's trying to say about it. Thank you all for the advice, I really really appreciate it

 

[troop231]

I probably wasn't clear, sorry. I was thinking of reading all 3, not one out of the 3.

Does the book not teach Obj-C 2.0? It mentions it in the description but it's hard to see what he's trying to say about it. Thank you all for the advice, I really really appreciate it

The first link is usually regarded to as the Bible for Objective C 2.0, Stephen Kochan did a really good job on it, and it's up to date with Xcode 4. The second book was written by Aaron Hillegass who used to work at NeXTSTEP writing software long before Steve Jobs returned to Apple, that book is also current in its new edition and uses Xcode 4. The last book is mainly a developer reference on API use and definition.

 

[Yumunum]

The first link is usually regarded to as the Bible for Objective C 2.0, Stephen Kochan did a really good job on it, and it's up to date with Xcode 4. The second book was written by Aaron Hillegass who used to work at NeXTSTEP writing software long before Steve Jobs returned to Apple, that book is also current in its new edition and uses Xcode 4. The last book is mainly a developer reference on API use and definition.

Sweet. Now before I press buy/order on Kochan's book... I need some input here. Are there any reasons I should want to buy it on Kindle vs. hard cover? I like the idea of digital, but maybe it won't turn out as nice as I thought. I just have an iPhone and my MacBook Air, I don't have an iPad, Kindle, or second computer. So I'd be switching windows each time I went from book to Xcode, or whatever else I'll be doing.

 

[balamw]

Just a quick note: Kochan's book is truly excellent and is designed for people without any programming experience.

I recommend starting there. (*)

IMHO, learning procedural languages like C or Pascal first (as several posters have recommended) is fraught with some risk/danger of developing bad habits and thus making C-like objective-C while there are much easier/clearer ways to do it in Objective-C. There was a thread I used as an example to illustrate this some time ago. I can't find it now.

(*) That said, Kochan doesn't resonate with everyone. MR users larswik and cybrscot were put off by it. If that happens to you explain why here and we may be able to point you in the right direction.

B

 

[jiminaus]

Sweet. Now before I press buy/order on Kochan's book... I need some input here. Are there any reasons I should want to buy it on Kindle vs. hard cover? I like the idea of digital, but maybe it won't turn out as nice as I thought. I just have an iPhone and my MacBook Air, I don't have an iPad, Kindle, or second computer. So I'd be switching windows each time I went from book to Xcode, or whatever else I'll be doing.

In my experience, switching back and forth become tedious really quickly when using an e-book. For me, e-books are only useful with a second display of some sort so I can read the book and look at the what I'm working on at the same time. I would pay the extra and get a hardcopy in your current situation.

 

[firewood]

Just a quick note: Kochan's book is truly excellent and is designed for people without any programming experience.

I have looked at Kochan's book in the bookstore: the presentation seem quite nice, but I found it to have far less introductory and explanatory material on the basic concepts of computer programming than many other books which are targeted to help people with zero programming experience get started. To say it is designed for that audience might be a bit of a stretch. For some it might be suitable, for others perhaps it may present too steep a learning curve. YMMV.

 

[North Bronson]

I have looked at Kochan's book in the bookstore: the presentation seem quite nice, but I found it to have far less introductory and explanatory material on the basic concepts of computer programming than many other books which are targeted to help people with zero programming experience get started. To say it is designed for that audience might be a bit of a stretch. For some it might be suitable, for others perhaps it may present too steep a learning curve. YMMV.

I do feel that Kochan's C text begins with more fundamentals. I felt that his Objective-C text did more of a job "jumping right in". In some sense, I would suggest that is might just be the nature of teaching a high-level object-oriented language as opposed to teaching a (relatively) lower-level procedural one.

 

[larswik]

I'll chime in here too because I am also learning to program. I started with Objective - C using Kochan's book and it was to hard for me. Objective C is C, I would learn C first and this book helped me. 'Learn C on the Mac'. Here is my history

1- Started with Kochan's book, Programming in Obj-C , I FAILED to understand it.
2- I bought 'Learn C on the Mac' - I GET IT.
3- January I started a Pascal Class at city college - VERY COOL - it taught me how to talk to people, get the lingo and better coding techniques
4- Last summer I read 'Objective - C for Absolute Beginners' - This book sucked and was full of errors and all over the place with examples. But it did teach me things with much help from this forum.
5- End of August I started Java class at city college to better understand object oriented programming. I had my 5th class last night.

Stay away from Cocoa and the urge to make any GUI interfaces. I went over a year before I made a GUI of any kind. Use the console and see how things work first. After learning C I wrote a a console based BlackJack game. The more you learn the basics first the easier it will be to transition upwards.

That is how I did it and I started last around April 2010. A year later I am still learning but I have learned a lot too. So start with Object - C book and if you don't get it move backwards and start at a basic level, C.

 

[newacct]

If it's 10.6.anything Snow Leopard, Xcode 4 is $5 from Mac App Store,

Not since 4.1 came out

 

[dacapo]

Everyone has different learning styles, so it can't really be helpful to recommend one way versus another.

With the SDK changing rapidly and the fact that no single resource can prepare you for every single scenario, I say just start with a decent step-by-step iPhone programming book and stay with it. I found "Beginning iPhone Programming" by LaMarche, et al quite helpful in the beginning. It's probably outdated now, but the fundamentals are the same.

There are also a ton of tutorials on the web for the relatively common questions/tasks.

In my own case, I had to wean off of books and really begin programming my own stuff. That's when it all began to click. So, I disagree with some of the posters saying you have to hold off on doing any real app development until later. Get cranking and don't look back!

 

[balamw]

In my own case, I had to wean off of books and really begin programming my own stuff. That's when it all began to click. So, I disagree with some of the posters saying you have to hold off on doing any real app development until later. Get cranking and don't look back!

I do concur with this. Programming is learned by doing, not reading.

However, you do need some basics and a bit of structure and reference material. Many threads here are started by "cut and paste" coders who are trying to ind a shortcut to getting an app in the store by following web tutorials they don't understand. So don't make that your primary source of learning material. Get a book. If you want to play with some tutorials, do that, but try and learn why things work the way they do not just make it work.


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I do feel that Kochan's C text begins with more fundamentals. I felt that his Objective-C text did more of a job "jumping right in". In some sense, I would suggest that is might just be the nature of teaching a high-level object-oriented language as opposed to teaching a (relatively) lower-level procedural one.

I think this is exactly the point.

Here's the thread I was thinking of earlier: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1212054/ which IMHO illustrates the pitfall of learning a procedural language first.

Learning how the gears and pistons in the car work before learning how to drive. Muscle memory from the procedural language leads you to do things that are far less efficient than the OOPy way.

B

 

[dacapo]

Agreed with balamw. You don't want to just start blindly copy/pasting in code and getting all lost unnecessarily and asking rudimentary questions and not even being able to comprehend the answers. At minimum one should have a solid reference to go to that teaches some fundamentals.

My main point is, as is much of programming, that the learning process is iterative between learning by reading/examples and learning by doing, etc.