macOS Getting started with Swift/MacOS programming

[DarthVader!]

I'm not sure if this is the right section or not but I'm looking for help in getting started with programming.

Back during the stone ages, I was a programmer for mainframes, then I dabbled in C, assembler and of course the venerable basic in the pre windows world. More recently I've developed in VBA and powershell for automation steps for my job, i.e., pushing restart scripts out to servers, or scheduling tasks all at once within a script. Long story short, I have some experience with the concepts of programming but I've been so far removed that I feel like I'm stuck on square one, I'm not sure how to proceed.

Is it worth going through some sort of online course/bootcamp? if anyone has any recommendations for a reputable course and also what would be the typical tuition of such a thing, that would be helpful.
Should I sign up for the paid developer at apple? That seems like over kill at this early stage but 99 dollars isn't that much in the scheme of things.
Books? Any recommendations?

I'm interested in doing this firstly as self improvement, but also with an eye towards maybe leveraging this professionally some how

 

[chabig]

I am not a programmer. The easiest way to begin might be to experiment with Apple's tools for learning Swift, called Swift Playgrounds.

Swift Playgrounds - Apple Developer

Swift Playgrounds is a revolutionary app for iPad and Mac that helps you learn and explore coding in Swift, the same powerful language used to create world-class apps for the App Store.

www.apple.com

Also, take advantage of Apple's developer documentation.

Swift - Apple Developer

Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Writing Swift code is interactive and fun, the syntax is concise yet expressive, and Swift includes modern features developers love.

developer.apple.com

 

[chown33]

I think it will depend on how much time you can spend focused on learning Swift. A little time every day will probably be better than big chunks of time done infrequently.

Bootcamps tend to be concentrated. Their goal is usually to get students up to speed rapidly. If speed isn't an essential part of your goal, then I think they might not be a good choice.

I also don't recommend spending the $99 for Dev status, at least not right away. Get farther along, to the point where you find that some of the Dev privileges are actually required to meet your goal. For example, if you have an app or two ready for others to try, and you're blocked because of lack of Dev privileges, that's the time to pay for Dev status.

If there's some other essential Dev service that would be an immediate benefit to you, that might be another reason. I haven't really stayed on top of what you get for $99/yr, since none of my development work needs features of the program.


The flip side of the above is that some people work better under pressure. They need something like the concentrated pressure of a bootcamp in order to be motivated. If that's you, then budget the time and money. If you're more of a self-starter and self-manager, and there isn't an external time pressure, then skip it.

I will say that having a concrete goal for an app or tool, however small, will be a big help. At least it is for me. As a recent example, I wanted to produce some SVG graphs from tabular data. I didn't know anything about SVG, so I had to read some articles, read the spec, and work out its main differences from PDF (which I was familiar with). It took a few days of fiddling with it directly in SVG files, then a few more to gin up the table-to-graph production, but I was producing usable SVG graphs in a couple weeks. I still don't know every feature of SVG, but it's enough to accomplish my goal.

 

[szymczyk]

Here's a list of resources for learning macOS development:

Resources for learning Mac development

I don't know of any Mac development book or course for people who are new to programming. You should take a look at Hacking with Swift's 100 Days of SwiftUI course. The course covers iOS development, but it is tailored to beginners. SwiftUI works on both iOS and Mac so a lot of what you learn in the course also applies to Mac development. After taking that course you would know enough Swift and SwiftUI to use the Mac development resources I linked to.

 

[DarthVader!]

Bootcamps tend to be concentrated. Their goal is usually to get students up to speed rapidly. If speed isn't an essential part of your goal, then I think they might not be a good choice.

Speed and time is not a requirement yet, I find such options alluring as it provides a structured approach and there's something to be said getting the basics ingested faster then just sitting and reading a book.

called Swift Playgrounds.

Thanks, I installed this and I'll take a look at this later

ere's a list of resources for learning macOS development:

Thanks for the link, its affirming some things that I found on my own