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iOS looking for the best beginner video course for IOS development

A

Anarchy99

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 13, 2003
1,041
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CA
So I've tried different tutorials occasionally on learning IOS development and I can never get into them
I'm guessing thats because i'm more of a visual learner
so I'm wondering about video courses and/or ways to learn by example.

I'd prefer to be for complete beginner
while I've have had some programming experience in college (7-8 years ago - can't believe it was that long ago)
for the most I was a C to F student when it came to Java C++ etc. So even if I remembered everything, which I doubt
I've never been skilled at it and i would rather skip/skim a familiar chapter then start out with a course that assumes I'm somewhat adept at programming.

But yeah long story short there are many video tutorials out there just as there are many apps but some are going to be better than others so if you have recommendations I'd like to hear them

thanks :)
 
While I am always quick to recommend the Stanford class as I think it is the absolute best, this may be the first thread in which I don't. The reason for that is your description of where you are at and what you are looking for. At the very beginning of the Stanford class each year, including this year, the instructor will tell you that you need a strong programming background to include object oriented. From your description of where you are at and I frankly think you'll struggle with their iOS class. I am not saying you'll get nothing out of it, but frankly this isn't the right class for your current experience.

What you really need to do is get the fundamentals of programming and object oriented down. This means not layering iOS topics on top of what you already don't know. Stanford actually has several more classes free on iTunes U for people closer to your experience level. As I recall there is a Programming Abstractions course but there is even one more fundamental than that one. They were recorded a while ago but that doesn't matter as these concepts don't change. Browse the courses on iTunes U and take those first. I know you want to dive into iOS but I am telling you doing so without a foundation is going to frustrate you and certainly will lead you to make poor design choices.

Good luck.
 
I'm taking the Stanford course myself and absolutely love it, but I would not recommend it to someone without substantial OO programming experience. It's perfect for developers coming from a different platform, though.

There's also the bitfountain Swift course (http://bitfountain.io/courses/complete-ios8, look out for discounts on the web), which I took before. It's definitely more geared towards novice programmers, and does a nice job of introducing the tooling and the platform, and I don't regret taking it at all, even though, as an experienced developer, I eventually outgrew the course and started looking for more in-depth material.

The thing is: I don't know how sensible it is to start learning to program in a complex environment such as iOS, and in a format like video tutorials. The language, platform, tooling and various frameworks all pile up to be a bit hard to digest for a beginner. In the bitfountain course, Eliot often compensates for that by saying something like: "Yeah I know this code looks a bit weird, but don't worry, that's just the way it's got to be" - when really, understanding these details is, imho, at the heart of learning to program.

So if you want to start from zero and see what it takes to actually build and run an app on your iPhone, by all means take the bitfountain course. Just don't expect it to cover any of the theoretical background that is ultimately needed to become a serious developer.

Edit: Yeah, basically what AppSwage said ;)
 
i agree that the stanford class is NOT for a beginner. While the class is great and the professor is top notch, as was said above, you need to understand programming first.

so i'll recommend cs50. https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/this-is-cs50-2014./id953585749

covers a lot and starts with C. there is a ton of additional resources including the help sessions the students have and a very helpful website with additional lessons. there is a very active reddit. so you can get a lot of help to get you thru the tough parts. i've learned about 100x more with that course than anything else I'd ever tried.
 
IIRC, the Lynda.com video started pretty entry level. It's been a while since I've watched them, but they are of excellent quality too.
 
Anarchy99 said:
So I've tried different tutorials occasionally on learning IOS development and I can never get into them
I'm guessing thats because i'm more of a visual learner
so I'm wondering about video courses and/or ways to learn by example.

I'd prefer to be for complete beginner
while I've have had some programming experience in college (7-8 years ago - can't believe it was that long ago)
for the most I was a C to F student when it came to Java C++ etc. So even if I remembered everything, which I doubt
I've never been skilled at it and i would rather skip/skim a familiar chapter then start out with a course that assumes I'm somewhat adept at programming.

But yeah long story short there are many video tutorials out there just as there are many apps but some are going to be better than others so if you have recommendations I'd like to hear them

thanks :)
Click to expand...

I would take the bitfountain course
They offer iOS 7 for free, have solutions to the exercises, have support
You can buy iOS 8 course quite cheap, sometimes with discount
 
I know absolutely nothing about programming but I've been interested in learning Swift ever since it was released. I recently purchased a course on udemy.com thats made for beginners. It's called The Complete iOS8 and Swift Course: Learn by Building 15 Real World Apps. Its about $200 but you can find a sale price code online, like I did, for about $30.00. It has a rating of 5 stars with over 61,000 students. I've only completed about 17% of the course and I thinks it's great. Check it out.
 
thenewboston has a series of "iOS Development with Swift" tutorials on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6gx4Cwl9DGDgp7nGSUnnXihbTLFZJ79B. You might wanna check those out. I believe he also has a series based on Objective-C.

Here's a blog post I found that claims to have the "10 Best Objective-C and iOS Developer Video Tutorials Online": http://equallysimple.com/best-objective-c-ios-developer-video-tutorials-online/. Since it lists iTunes U, Udemy and Linda.com, I suspect it may be a decent list, though I haven't looked into all of them.
 
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