iOS Is Swift Xcode? confused (noob!!)

[Barna Biro]

If you're budget is very limited ( or even if it's not ), then this is how I'd approach it:

1) read the official docs front-to-back and do all the examples ( don't forget, there are FREE video tutorials available on the official website too + other useful resources... basic and even more advanced stuff )... WRITE CODE !!! don't just read pages after pages, but type the code into XCode and run it! See how it actually works and play around with each new topic a tiny bit ( they even left small tasks in the docs that should help you deepen your knowledge )... try to combine the knowledge you've gathered in previous pages with stuff you've just read about!

2) search Google for and read articles on Swift and/or general programming topics / principles ( blog posts, forums, join user groups, etc. )

3) once you're more or less done with point 1) and you've spent a bit of time looking for and reading about stuff at point 2) ... you should by now know if you like programming and/or Swift... if you decide to continue, then I advise rolling in the iOS developer program. Of course, this is debatable, but 99$ / year is not bad... some look at it as: "I need this in order to upload my app to their market", which is fine but narrow sighted... Especially for someone who's new to these things, it could actually be very beneficial to enroll early on. Why? Because it gives you access to even more information!!! The subscription isn't only about being able to upload your app to their store! You are also given access to articles, tutorials, examples, forums, etc. that you couldn't otherwise read / discover !!! This can be HUGE !!!

Paying 25$ / month at Lynda or anywhere else, is definitely not going to be cheap... especially since it's unlikely that you'll learn programming over night ( not to mention Swift ). Expect to spend a couple hundreds... ( except if you're sneaky and you just spend the entire month capturing / record as much material as you can and only afterward sitting down to watch it... *ehm* you heard / read nothing from me... *walks away whistling* )

I'd personally not pay for any Lynda tutorial ( I'm not saying they are necessarily bad, it's simply not how I prefer to learn new things ). Programming requires you to ( ideally ) develop "analytical thinking"... something that tutorials in general don't help with... cause well, they rarely ( if ever ) involve "thinking" and falling into the "convenience / copy-paste trap" will be very bad and disappointing on the long run. Mainly because the moment you break away form the very basic stuff, chances are you'll not find any tutorials to guide you... and you'll most likely be stuck because you've never had to "think" about how to solve problems on your own before... you were always just following and maybe slightly editing tutorial examples and picking up habits from people - the author(s) of the tutorial(s) - who might not even be decent at programming.

 

[MrMister111]

Barna makes a good point, but if your concerned about the price of Lynda.com @ $25 / month, then the cost of the developer account might be a concern as well.



The point I should have made is that if you want to save some money, you can delay the paid developer account costs and use the sim until you have a good handle on the language.



Everyone "gets" programming at a different speed.



Buying the paid dev account doesn't need to happen at the start. If $25/month is steep then the $99/year might be steep as well. Learning the concepts of programming might take him 3 months, on the other hand it might take him 3 months to find out he hates programming.



Apple's happy to take your money, it's almost like a carnival where you try and get the dime on the plate or the ring on the peg.



Let's face it, this was a gold rush at the start, stories about instant wealth from a flashlight app... tons of people standing in line giving their money to Apple for a shot at the big time.



Yet how many of them stick around when they realize that programming is actual work and takes actual thinking?



IMO, someone can find out if they should do this without paying any money at all.



Learning doesn't have to cost much money, at least not in this case. I think spending $25 for one month at Lynda.com should give him some good insight into this.

I agree totally. The simulator will be good tho learn, but the real device used in will be better but that's a long way away and so pointless I'm my opinion until I can programme even a little.

I've no problem paying for a month of Lynda, are these don't good for helping on Lynda?

http://m.lynda.com/Swift-training-t...ynda.com/Swift-training-tutorials/5904-0.html

The problem I have is I'd prefer to be able to download the videos to use offline etc, but I can't find a program that will. I don't need any of the other numerous, and no doubt excellent videos, so to have a one size fits all for the video pricing is a waste, e.g. Have tiered pricing for the number of videos.

 

[Barna Biro]

Have you bothered checking the few free samples from those Lynda tutorials? ( I guess not... ) For example: http://m.lynda.com/player/194534 According to the presenter and considering your complete lack of programming fundamentals ( do please correct me if I'm wrong ), those courses are not for you. You can still give them a shot, but chances are you won't understand much...

 

[MrMister111]

Sorry I hadn't checked, can't at moment, but just searched for swift in Lynda.

I am a complete beginner, e.g. The stuff talked above in the thread is way above anything I know....

 

[Barna Biro]

Sorry I hadn't checked, can't at moment, but just searched for swift in Lynda.

I am a complete beginner, e.g. The stuff talked above in the thread is way above anything I know....

When you have the chance, do check the link I've posted above. You might be better off starting with some other course first ( something that will teach you programming basics / fundamentals ). Or as I've kept on saying, you could start reading the official Swift documentation for FREE... the docs will also take you through programming fundamentals. You just need to start read them... read them multiple times if needed, until you understand how the concepts work.

 

[1458279]

I agree totally. The simulator will be good tho learn, but the real device used in will be better but that's a long way away and so pointless I'm my opinion until I can programme even a little.

I've no problem paying for a month of Lynda, are these don't good for helping on Lynda?

http://m.lynda.com/Swift-training-t...ynda.com/Swift-training-tutorials/5904-0.html

The problem I have is I'd prefer to be able to download the videos to use offline etc, but I can't find a program that will. I don't need any of the other numerous, and no doubt excellent videos, so to have a one size fits all for the video pricing is a waste, e.g. Have tiered pricing for the number of videos.

Many sites have struggled with making video NOT download. They are renting a video and it would be pretty easy to take them and resell or pass around on a file sharing site. So I'm pretty sure they don't want you to download the videos.

One think I've done is setup a pocket video recorder (Kodak Zi8) on a tripod and press record. It's not the quality of the original, but it does work. It's like taking a snapshot of snapchat using a 2nd camera, loss of quality, but it works

One month should be plenty of time to get info about the basics, if you take good notes, you can go back and reference those notes.

We hear all the time about "boot camps", Lynda and other ways to go... One thing I would do before any of these is to get a book/doc or something and learn until your stuck. I'd hate to spend big $$ on something just to have someone explain to me the difference between a Long and an Int.

A company I worked for paid for a multi-day crash course for me years ago. I was pissed when 1 student kept going on and on about how he couldn't do whatever he was trying to do. The course helped, but was not worth the price. Even thou I didn't pay, it was still not worth the price.

I look for the cheapest route 1st, YouTube tutorials, User groups, Forums, GitHub, Books,... then (if needed) look to paid sources.

One other note: most of these are directed towards general app development... If you want gaming or something special, getting answers to specific question gets harder to find, and some of these places don't keep their stuff updated.

 

[theSeb]

Haha fair enough.

Can we agree that the OP should not be starting with C++ though

That was our "starter" language in University many years ago and I am glad. Our year was the last to do that though and they replaced it with Java.

As for actually learning this stuff, I would start by shelving the idea of XCode, iOS, Swift etc and focus on learning the basic fundamentals of programming and Computer Science. This will give you a foundation that you can apply to any language and any platform.

A nice course to start with would be "Introduction to Computer Science and Programming" from MIT. It's free on iTunesU and there are many other similar courses, like the Berkeley ones.

Then, once you have the hang of it, check out the Stanford University courses on iOS by Paul Hegarty, who is one of the best lecturers I have ever seen and I wish he was at my University. Unfortunately the last course is still for iOS 7 and therefore covers Objective C, but it will give a good introduction. I am sure that the iOS8 course will be coming out soon and will be using Swift.

There are some good tutorials (both free and paid) on Swift around on places like, www.raywenderlich.com. I am not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but there are also two free books from Apple on Swift.

 

[larswik]

Sorry I hadn't checked, can't at moment, but just searched for swift in Lynda.

I am a complete beginner, e.g. The stuff talked above in the thread is way above anything I know....

Just throwing in my 2 cents. If you are totally new to programming forget about making apps and working with the simulator. Although creating apps to start sounds like a lot of fun but you will get lost with the extra stuff. Stay away from anything graphical and just learn the basics of coding and step up from there.

Like everything else start simple first. If you take your time, start simple and TRULY LEARN the basics you will have a much better time advancing more complicated projects. Start with C, you can't go wrong with that.

I saw one user a while back buy a C book and he read it in a week and was more confused at the end. I spent a year learning programming before I even tried to tackle a graphics type program.

 

[1458279]

Just throwing in my 2 cents. If you are totally new to programming forget about making apps and working with the simulator. Although creating apps to start sounds like a lot of fun but you will get lost with the extra stuff. Stay away from anything graphical and just learn the basics of coding and step up from there.

Like everything else start simple first. If you take your time, start simple and TRULY LEARN the basics you will have a much better time advancing more complicated projects. Start with C, you can't go wrong with that.

I saw one user a while back buy a C book and he read it in a week and was more confused at the end. I spent a year learning programming before I even tried to tackle a graphics type program.

Great point, Xcode is a bit to learn all by itself. One mistake most new people make is that they think all they need to do is learn a programming language, yet there's so much more to it.

 

[larswik]

Great point, Xcode is a bit to learn all by itself. One mistake most new people make is that they think all they need to do is learn a programming language, yet there's so much more to it.

Yep. I truly struggled to grasp C when I started. Lee, Chown and others help but it was hard to understand at first. Now I appreciate the teaching style they had by not just giving you the answer, but making you research and learn it through trial and error.

That's one of the cool things about this board. An unwritten rule about helping people by not directly giving them the answers when they are learning how to program. Learn by doing made me better then learning by people giving me the answer.

 

[firewood]

Love to be able to program an app, got no experience, am a savvy computer user would say, but nothing on programming.

Objective-C in my opinion really isn't THAT difficult to begin with.

If you have no experience with programming, start with a toy educational language for kids (dummies, idiots, et.al.). Perhaps hunt around for the easiest one (book, web site, class, etc.) you can find. Or try more than one. The local library might have an old book on programming suitable for 6th graders.

The vast majority of educated people haven't even gotten past that point (and millions of high school and college students flunk intro CS 1A), so it's far more difficult than people who are already past that point think.

Once you learn how to solve problems in one language (or environment, and building an app involves creating and solving tons of problems), learning the next programming language (Swift, Go, Erlang, whatever...) is far easier.

 

[moonman239]

Swift is designed to be newbie-friendly. As such, you may or may not need to do much Obj-C programming. In fact, quite a few concepts from Objective-C are in Swift as well, such as delegates and basic object-oriented concepts (classes, inheritance, etc.) Whether or not you need to learn another language depends entirely upon what you want to do. Support legacy apps? Learn enough Objective-C to read the code and understand what it does. Create a more computationally efficient program? Learn Objective-C and perhaps C++.

Edit: Having said that, you could consider taking Intro to Programming at your local community/junior college.

 

[Mason_Boon]

Xcode is an IDE, essentially a program to write code in. Think of it like Pages or Microsoft Word. Swift is the actual code that you write in Xcode. It's not a program, it's a language, similar to the text that you write in Pages.

So Xcode is what I write in, and swift is what runs it.