Hi guys, I am thinking of learning up Iphone programming from scratch. I don't have any programming working experience besides the couple of programming subjects I done during University on my IT degree. I was thinking of buying a book on Cocoa as well as the book on the Iphone SDK. How big of a learning curve will it be?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iOS Learning up Iphone programming from scratch, easy?
- Thread starter stanny
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm not sure in your case!
IF you have had programming courses at a university level you really should be able to answer that yourself. Each person has his own level of understanding of the subject and acceptance of the educational offerings. The question is how did you grasp those college classes?
The next issue is how good are you with abstract thinking, and dealing with advanced computer science concepts. Your posting indicates to me that you don't have a good ability here so you may want to think deeply about how committed you are going forward. Some people simply don't ever grasp programming, you have to figure out if you are in that group.
Dave
IF you have had programming courses at a university level you really should be able to answer that yourself. Each person has his own level of understanding of the subject and acceptance of the educational offerings. The question is how did you grasp those college classes?
The next issue is how good are you with abstract thinking, and dealing with advanced computer science concepts. Your posting indicates to me that you don't have a good ability here so you may want to think deeply about how committed you are going forward. Some people simply don't ever grasp programming, you have to figure out if you are in that group.
Dave
University programming classes vary in difficulty. But I would guess that learning to develop for the iPhone is probably more difficult than typical undergraduate university coursework. Greater constraints (similar to an embedded system), less available documentation and pre-cooked library solutions, higher standards to get accepted into the App store than to get a C+ on an assignment, etc.
So figure out how well you did in your programming classes and then subtract 2 grades. Do you still pass?
.
So figure out how well you did in your programming classes and then subtract 2 grades. Do you still pass?
.
Pick up a book on Iphone Programming at Amazon.com
If i were you forget books. You need to get your hands dirty that is the only way you will learn. Download some sample code from the SDK. Trust thats the only way you will learn quick.
You can go to school and read all books in the world nothing beats Real World Experience. That also applies if you want to Fix Cars, Airplanes, Computers,etc.. you need real world experience.
If i were you forget books. You need to get your hands dirty that is the only way you will learn. Download some sample code from the SDK. Trust thats the only way you will learn quick.
You can go to school and read all books in the world nothing beats Real World Experience. That also applies if you want to Fix Cars, Airplanes, Computers,etc.. you need real world experience.
I have read a number of books on this subject and one of them is head and shoulders above the rest. It's called "Programming in Objective-C 2.0" by Stephen Kochan.
The best part about the book is that it assumes no prior knowledge of C. I also read book by Erica Sadun, but it was intimidating and much higher level, I'd recommend you avoid that one.
Kochan's focuses a lot on the concepts and it does a GREAT job of explaining them but it doesn't cover very much about interface creation, although it does have a chapter specific to iPhone.
The best part about the book is that it assumes no prior knowledge of C. I also read book by Erica Sadun, but it was intimidating and much higher level, I'd recommend you avoid that one.
Kochan's focuses a lot on the concepts and it does a GREAT job of explaining them but it doesn't cover very much about interface creation, although it does have a chapter specific to iPhone.
As neiltc13 says, Kochan's book is the one for Objective C, but for the actual iPhone programming I highly recommend "Beginning iPhone Development Exploring the iPhone SDK" by Mark & LaMarche. (The book that is usually recommended is Hillegass's "Cocoa programming for Mac OSX", and it is excellent, but it doesn't include anything on the iPhone.)
Mark & Lamarche's book says:
"This book assumes you already have some programming knowledge. It assumes the fundamentals of Object-Oriented programming. It also assumes you are familiar with the Objective-C programming language."
Kochan's book assumes none of this. For me, I found his book to be best because my background is in web stuff like HTML and PHP and I have no experience with Object Oriented programming.
I just bought the Mark & LaMarche book last night. Pretty easy to get through. I'm a fairly well experienced Java programmer so figuring out Objective-C hasn't been a big issue for me. The biggest issue for me honestly is probably going to be retain/release.... even once I understand it I'm sure I'll be paranoid about it getting me.
Odds are for most, no one book is going to suffice for most.
I also have all 3 editions of Hillegass' book but usually get to chapter 4 or 5 before I realize even once I'm done I have nothing I want to program on OS X. At least with the iPhone I have an end goal to motivate me.