iOS Inexperienced in any programming, how long would it take to learn to make an iOS app?

[goahead]

Hi all,

I'd really like to learn to make an app for iOS. It doesn't have to be amazing or anything. It's basically just for my own experience.

I study graphic design. I've been only studying about the basic UI design rule for iOS and I'm totally inexperienced in any programming/coding. I've studied really really basic html and css for web, but I doubt that it can be counted as programming or coding or anything.

So, I'm wondering how long it will take for me to learn to make an iOS app. I only have 3-5 months to learn if I decide to do this project. I'd say I learn quite fast, but whenever I see someone programming I just get confused.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[AxoNeuron]

3-5 months? It reallllly depends on you. Are you doing it for money and can spend 8 hours a day or more on it? If so, you can probably get a basic-to-medium skill set on 3-5 months. But it really depends on the complexity of your app. If it requires something like an online accounts system with SSL security sending media files back and forth, probably will take you a lot longer than 3-5 months.

I have been learning since May and I would say that I am pretty much half way to having all of the iOS development skills I would like to have, but I have a big bucket list and I've got a job and college so I'm spending an hour or two each day learning development. I've only been learning purely for fun though so if I was motivated by $$$ I might have gone through it a bit faster, but over all I am glad I've taken a slow and thorough approach to all the concepts.

I have already made a few really awesome apps (awesome in my opinion ), I've become a Core Data ninja and I am making multithreaded apps but there is so much to know that I still have a ways to go, even if I can probably make a simplistic professional level app at this point.

Best of luck! If you have any questions as you get started feel free to PM me

 

[osxmacfan]

1 day to make basic app

ibuild app

website

drag and drop

- can't make super-sophisticated apps, but really basic apps are easy.

 

[AxoNeuron]

ibuild app

website

drag and drop

- can't make super-sophisticated apps, but really basic apps are easy.

I wouldn't bother with this if you want to make anything more complicated than an app that resembles a pre-fab blog.

 

[goahead]

3-5 months? It reallllly depends on you. Are you doing it for money and can spend 8 hours a day or more on it? If so, you can probably get a basic-to-medium skill set on 3-5 months. But it really depends on the complexity of your app. If it requires something like an online accounts system with SSL security sending media files back and forth, probably will take you a lot longer than 3-5 months.

Thanks for the reply I am not doing this for money at the moment, but I'm pretty sure it'd help me to get a better job with higher salary.

I'm hoping to build a camera/photo app with those typical photo app features such as filters, adjusts and etc. And I have a feeling (actually I have no clue) that it requires quite a lot of skill set.

 

[AxoNeuron]

Thanks for the reply I am not doing this for money at the moment, but I'm pretty sure it'd help me to get a better job with higher salary.

I'm hoping to build a camera/photo app with those typical photo app features such as filters, adjusts and etc. And I have a feeling (actually I have no clue) that it requires quite a lot of skill set.

That's coincidental actually. I just built a photo filter app. It uses CIFilters and a UICollection view combined with some core animation stuff to make it pop, so to say. It's not very difficult at all. I started learning back in May (starting with zero programming experience) and that was about five months ago, and I've been learning on the side as a hobby, so yeah it's definitely doable. You should be able to get it done in 3 months or less and have a solid foundation if you can dedicate 3-4 hours a day. I am learning from the complete iOS 7 course on Stacksocial.com. I would recommend it. I would advise starting with that course, not the iOS 8 Swift course, since Objective C at this point is still essential, and it's best to learn objective C first, which makes Swift much easier.

The filters are the easy part. The hard part is making it fast. Filters are very GPU intensive and its almost a necessity to use multithreading to make use of the 2 cores on the device. Also, another challenge is making it so that it will accept images of different proportions (landscape, portrait, or any size for images saved from the Internet) and handle them differently based on those proportions. For example, if you have a square preview for each image in the album, but the user has filtered a whole bunch of landscape pictures, you can to crop them programmatically just for the previews if you don't like some of the default fill options that the UIImageView provides (the view object that shows the actual image on the device display).

 

[stera8]

That's coincidental actually. I just built a photo filter app. It uses CIFilters and a UICollection view combined with some core animation stuff to make it pop, so to say. It's not very difficult at all. I started learning back in May (starting with zero programming experience) and that was about five months ago, and I've been learning on the side as a hobby, so yeah it's definitely doable. You should be able to get it done in 3 months or less and have a solid foundation if you can dedicate 3-4 hours a day. I am learning from the complete iOS 7 course on Stacksocial.com. I would recommend it. I would advise starting with that course, not the iOS 8 Swift course, since Objective C at this point is still essential, and it's best to learn objective C first, which makes Swift much easier.

The filters are the easy part. The hard part is making it fast. Filters are very GPU intensive and its almost a necessity to use multithreading to make use of the 2 cores on the device. Also, another challenge is making it so that it will accept images of different proportions (landscape, portrait, or any size for images saved from the Internet) and handle them differently based on those proportions. For example, if you have a square preview for each image in the album, but the user has filtered a whole bunch of landscape pictures, you can to crop them programmatically just for the previews if you don't like some of the default fill options that the UIImageView provides (the view object that shows the actual image on the device display).

After 5 months, what are some apps you put out?

 

[AxoNeuron]

After 5 months, what are some apps you put out?

I don't have any apps on the store yet, my skills still aren't where I would like them to be before I start making production level apps. I just learned how to make an online accounts system and made one without any outside help, but I still need to learn more about how to connect my applications to the Internet via online servers I have access to. And I need to learn how to implement SSL. I just learned how to use AES 256bit encryption in my apps though

 

[stera8]

I don't have any apps on the store yet, my skills still aren't where I would like them to be before I start making production level apps. I just learned how to make an online accounts system and made one without any outside help, but I still need to learn more about how to connect my applications to the Internet via online servers I have access to. And I need to learn how to implement SSL. I just learned how to use AES 256bit encryption in my apps though

Well you seem like you're on the right track. I've learned basics through YouTube and had my app published. It's called Goal Rubric for the iPad. I'm a teacher and I'm trying to make apps for education since my district just turned to a 2:1 k-2 environment (iPad for every 2 kids). I made this after about a month just trying to set a goal myself (no pun intended lol) it's basic but I'm proud to show it off to my fellow teachers and students. I don't expect to make any money from the ads.,,I think like $2 In the past month. Having an app in the store to show my students is a great feeling to introduce them to coding

 

[firewood]

This can't be answered, as depending on your aptitude and the type of app you want to make, the time can vary by over 100X.

A simple common-type of iOS app from an online template generator, can be built in days. Whereas learning to make full featured OpenGL 3D games with custom shaders and effects sometimes stumps students with 6 year graduate CS degrees. Some kids learn to code apps at age 11 by themselves in mere weeks; other adults flunk out of programming classes after trying for years.

Which are you?

 

[Dookieman]

Lets just say it will take 6 months to a year. That's if you study and work on something 2-3 hours per day.

What will help the most is having an actual project to work on.

Simply reading books on programming and working on exercises gets horribly boring and tedious, and you will most likely lose interest. We've all been there. I've attempted to learn multiple times throughout my life and would get a week into a book, then just stop caring and lose my motivation. It wasn't until I had an idea for an app that I finally began to understand how it all works and my motivation stayed constant.

I'm no expert, but Ive grown over the past couple of years.

 

[stera8]

This can't be answered, as depending on your aptitude and the type of app you want to make, the time can vary by over 100X.

A simple common-type of iOS app from an online template generator, can be built in days. Whereas learning to make full featured OpenGL 3D games with custom shaders and effects sometimes stumps students with 6 year graduate CS degrees. Some kids learn to code apps at age 11 by themselves in mere weeks; other adults flunk out of programming classes after trying for years.

Which are you?

Great answer

Lets just say it will take 6 months to a year. That's if you study and work on something 2-3 hours per day.

What will help the most is having an actual project to work on.

Simply reading books on programming and working on exercises gets horribly boring and tedious, and you will most likely lose interest. We've all been there. I've attempted to learn multiple times throughout my life and would get a week into a book, then just stop caring and lose my motivation. It wasn't until I had an idea for an app that I finally began to understand how it all works and my motivation stayed constant.

I'm no expert, but Ive grown over the past couple of years.

I agree with books getting boring. I recreated some apps based off YouTube tutorials. Then I created Goal Rubric for the iPad. I started with class mode, then updated with buddy mode, and last I made assessment mode. I agree that projects are the best way.

I currently have 3 projects I'm working on. Two are for education and one I'm trying to figure out core motion.

 

[Lylyluvda916]

3-5 months? It reallllly depends on you. Are you doing it for money and can spend 8 hours a day or more on it? If so, you can probably get a basic-to-medium skill set on 3-5 months. But it really depends on the complexity of your app. If it requires something like an online accounts system with SSL security sending media files back and forth, probably will take you a lot longer than 3-5 months.

I have been learning since May and I would say that I am pretty much half way to having all of the iOS development skills I would like to have, but I have a big bucket list and I've got a job and college so I'm spending an hour or two each day learning development. I've only been learning purely for fun though so if I was motivated by $$$ I might have gone through it a bit faster, but over all I am glad I've taken a slow and thorough approach to all the concepts.

I have already made a few really awesome apps (awesome in my opinion ), I've become a Core Data ninja and I am making multithreaded apps but there is so much to know that I still have a ways to go, even if I can probably make a simplistic professional level app at this point.

Best of luck! If you have any questions as you get started feel free to PM me

If you dont mine me asking, what programs/tools/books would you recommend for someone who is starting off?

 

[afro-ninja]

That's coincidental actually. I just built a photo filter app. It uses CIFilters and a UICollection view combined with some core animation stuff to make it pop, so to say. It's not very difficult at all. I started learning back in May (starting with zero programming experience) and that was about five months ago, and I've been learning on the side as a hobby, so yeah it's definitely doable. You should be able to get it done in 3 months or less and have a solid foundation if you can dedicate 3-4 hours a day. I am learning from the complete iOS 7 course on Stacksocial.com. I would recommend it. I would advise starting with that course, not the iOS 8 Swift course, since Objective C at this point is still essential, and it's best to learn objective C first, which makes Swift much easier.

The filters are the easy part. The hard part is making it fast. Filters are very GPU intensive and its almost a necessity to use multithreading to make use of the 2 cores on the device. Also, another challenge is making it so that it will accept images of different proportions (landscape, portrait, or any size for images saved from the Internet) and handle them differently based on those proportions. For example, if you have a square preview for each image in the album, but the user has filtered a whole bunch of landscape pictures, you can to crop them programmatically just for the previews if you don't like some of the default fill options that the UIImageView provides (the view object that shows the actual image on the device display).

Can I ask why you wouldn't recommend starting with Swift? As someone also just starting in programming, I was under the impression that a more modern, easier-to-read language like Swift was perfect to begin with? ObjC looks scary to me haha!

 

[AxoNeuron]

Can I ask why you wouldn't recommend starting with Swift? As someone also just starting in programming, I was under the impression that a more modern, easier-to-read language like Swift was perfect to begin with? ObjC looks scary to me haha!

Well there's a few reasons. Most of the third party frameworks and API's you will want to use are still in Objective-C. In fact a lot of Apple's frameworks are still in Objective-C. Second, it's a lot easier to learn objective-C and then move to swift than it is the other way around.

Almost all of the invaluable resources out there for how to do things are still in Objective-C. And lastly, Objective-C is a superset of C and has a large number of similarities with C++ so it makes learning other C based languages a lot easier than Swift would, since Swift is influenced but not descended from C.

Objective-C isn't a difficult language at all in my opinion. It is a little verbose, having things like UICollectionViewControllerDelegate, but in being verbose it is also very descriptive and you can guess exactly what most things do the first time you see them. I greatly prefer Objective-C for this and other reasons.

----------

If you dont mine me asking, what programs/tools/books would you recommend for someone who is starting off?

I would recommend the book Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan but only as a reference. Mainly I would recommend "The Complete iOS 7 Corse" from stacksocial.

 

[afro-ninja]

Well there's a few reasons. Most of the third party frameworks and API's you will want to use are still in Objective-C. In fact a lot of Apple's frameworks are still in Objective-C. Second, it's a lot easier to learn objective-C and then move to swift than it is the other way around.

Almost all of the invaluable resources out there for how to do things are still in Objective-C. And lastly, Objective-C is a superset of C and has a large number of similarities with C++ so it makes learning other C based languages a lot easier than Swift would, since Swift is influenced but not descended from C.

Objective-C isn't a difficult language at all in my opinion. It is a little verbose, having things like UICollectionViewControllerDelegate, but in being verbose it is also very descriptive and you can guess exactly what most things do the first time you see them. I greatly prefer Objective-C for this and other reasons.

I see, thanks!