Correct. It's called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and it's very powerful. I have done some pretty cool things using it in Excel and Visio
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macOS Programming - Learn with Swift?
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Data Analytics and the UI issues are tough, tough problems. There is a reason that companies pay a lot for these products and entire companies form up around them. Harder than "learning" to program. That said these are not unworthy goals. Don't learn how to program as your first step, immerse yourself into the problem. Become an Excel expert. It is an amazing tool especially as you move from just plopping stuff into a spreadsheet to designing solutions. Figure out how to make it work from within the program. Maybe you'll be done when you figure it out. But if you're not, you will have an acute understanding of the problem and how Excel isn't working for you to solve it. THEN figure out what you would do differently. What it would look like if you did it differently. And that will help give you answers. Is it a programming problem? Is it a language problem? Is it an application problem? Is it a platform problem? Excel is going to be as inscrutable as a blank page in an IDE when you are beginning, but it really is an incredibly flexible tool that will let you massage and discover information in your data. It is almost always a matter of discovering HOW to do that, that is the problem. Making it easier for a non-technical user is extraordinarily difficult for a novice to pull off.
I truly have problems with people advising to first learn another language to finally learn swift. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for my fellow contributors to this thread. I also understand the reasoning behind it. You first tackle an "easy" language. Then you move on to other languages. Indeed resources on swift are not that common as resources on objective-C and python etc.
I do not know about python. I do strongly advise going into objective-C. Why? I learned objective-c myself, and now I'm learning swift. Objective-C has its own reasoning, loves pointers, etc. Swift almost understands the art not to talk about pointers. And yes I agree the OP (= operator) ought to know what a pointer is. But then I want to talk about learning efforts.
By the time the OP copes with objective-C swift 4 might be out. I do not know how much time it takes to learn python. It is a bit of a shame but it's true most courses aim at iOS development and not macOS. Let's tare them apart in two sections, starting with swift.
I just finished a book about swift itself. It's called "Swift in 24 hours" and it's good. You can get a free sample of it in the iTunes store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/swift-in-24-hours-sams-teach/id945702726?mt=11. Secondly, once you have learned swift you ought to find a course about macOS development in swift. Apparantly Apress has a book on this subject. I do not know if it's good: http://www.apress.com/9781484203774.
Why am I suggesting this route? Simple, it will save you a lot of time. That time can be invested in trying things out. Stumble, fall, and learn. But do it in swift as you intend to program in ... swift.
ps: I did get objective-C in the long run. I just wished swift came out a year sooner. For in the long run I had to learn swift. But it's a matter of opinion I guess. I'm looking forward to producing apps, more than learning new languages. That being said, my fellow contributors above are really good, and I myself can still learn a lot of them and hold them in high esteem.
XCode (The IDE) doesn't support Python - but I recommend Eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/ along with PyDev http://pydev.org/
One piece of advice, when learning programming - don't set your initial expectations too high - or you'll get frustrated when you don't attain them quickly. Set reasonable goals - and then slowly set loftier goals as you reach them.
Looks like there is a Python tutorial on iTunes U: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/hands-on-python-tutorial-chapter/id448754574?mt=10
I can't give you any advice about whether it's the right place to start, as I'm a complete beginner, but I have just started working through this free set of tutorials on swift - https://www.hackingwithswift.com
I have no prior experience of computer languages or programming, just thought it would be interesting. I've got through the first 3 without any problems, but all I am really doing is following instructions and typing. The learning by doing suits me though, and I think it is sinking in slowly.
Hope it may be of use.
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I both agree and disagree with this post. 18 months ago I started learning Python for all the reasons people have stated in this thread. Plus it does have many technical code libraries. Then Apple introduced Swift and I dropped learning Python and dropped using Pascal (which has been my mainstay for over 35 years.) There was some pain involved at such an early stage in Swift's life. But I still felt I made the correct decision. Now, with Swift 2.0 out AND Apple's announcement that Swift would be made open source .
1) I have no reservations whatsoever for a beginner to start with Swift 2.0. Do it.
There are plenty of tutorial books and videos out. However they are not all created equal and there is plenty of junk to wade through.
2) However, there is one learning resource that stands out above all other (In my strong Opinion) and that is
any tutorial that Simon Allardice has put out on general programming and Swift. His videos can be viewed through Lynda.com and now at Pluralsight. Yes, Lynda is paid service but well worth the nominal monthly cost (and I am very cheap.) Subs are monthly or annual. A couple months is all you need. Do it.
If you are going to do any Apple product programming, take all my advice from the above and square it.
Swift can be used as a general intro language but is also meant for production code. The advanced language features can be difficult to grasp but learn these later. Swift could be used in a two semester university course (intro programming and then data structures.) This is where Pascal got bogged down where many people always thought it was just for learning (and didn't really understand it wasn't - an C took over.) However that is past history. What is important now is that the (arguably) most successful company in the world made the decision to create and promote Swift. I have $1,000 to bet that it is here to stay and will be the language of choice in a few years.
One area which is not so nice (IMO) is the Cocoa and iOS frameworks. These are still based from Objective C and carry a lot of baggage. I'm hoping that someday the frameworks will be revamped but that might be awhile. But this goes beyond the original question.
It requires a degree of time investment. I have no clue how people that work a normal 9 to 5 job and then comes home to a family has any real time to really learn or keep up with programming. At least single people have the weekends to learn.
I downloaded Unity3D for game development and now learning C# this weekend.
> ...HTML,HTML5,CSS,PHP,Java-script,MYSQL for building apps
Those are for building web apps... Apps that run as web pages in your browser. People can and do use them to build other kinds of apps, but it takes some kind of additional wrapper.
Together these are powerful and for the most part each one has a pretty gentle learning curve. But it's fairly complicated to put it all together, which can make this a challenging place to start.
If you want to build iOS apps, Swift or Objective-C with Xcode is probably the most straight-forward place to start. The GUI builder, online help, code completion, tools, resource editors, etc. are all there and built to work well together. There are so many things to learn when starting out if you want to end up with an app so a comprehensive environment that minimizes that is really helpful.
Personally, I think Swift is a better place to start than Objective-C at this point.
(If you want to make 2-D or 3-D games, there are most specialized tools like Unity for that.)
Any new project you should do in Swift. I just started with Xcode and Swift, because I'm totally fed up with the available MP3 taggers for OSX (e.g. Kid3 is a POS). Maybe I'm reinventing the wheel, but I'm thinking of something like Tag&Rename for Windows.
Coming from Visual Studio and mainly C#, I must say Swift feels similar to C#. However, the language is somewhat confusing sometimes. For example the definition of (dynamic) arrays and adding elements (and values).
What also strikes me is the lack of examples to write an application. Took me ages to figure out how to add code to the app main menu, e.g. to open files.
Coming from Visual Studio and mainly C#, I must say Swift feels similar to C#. However, the language is somewhat confusing sometimes. For example the definition of (dynamic) arrays and adding elements (and values).
What also strikes me is the lack of examples to write an application. Took me ages to figure out how to add code to the app main menu, e.g. to open files.
i *HIGHLY agree - I have taken numerous courses by Simon on Lynda.com and I will definitely be signing up at Pluralsight when I see he has new courses available there.
It's one thing to be reading a book on Swift and typing in the examples - it's quite a bit different to be watching and listening to someone explaining the core fundamentals - as you type along with them.
With the videos - you know instantly if you did something wrong - since your output (in a playground for example) is not matching what is being shown in Simon's.
His material is top notch - as is his presentation, he is a true professional.
Note - his videos on Lynda.com assume XCode 6.x, so if you'd like to follow along using the same version of XCode as he is - don't upgrade to El Capitan until you are done...
I highly recommend any tutorials by Simon Allardice - Swift, Cocoa, iOS and the fundamentals of programming which are language neutral. His video courses are better than anything else by a wide margin including university courses in comp sci. They provide the quickest way to get into programming and design I have found. He provides good resources to follow up with. Someone mentioned the Nerd Ranch book. I did buy that and found it lacking for a beginner's book.
As for languages, I believe Swift will be pretty stable within 6-12 months and is the way to go. Don't waste any money on any tutorial or book which hasn't updated to Swift 2.0. There is a learning curve which is probably more difficult than Python (which isn't bad of a language) but if you want to code for the Mac and HI, you will be ahead of the game. Objective C is difficult. Apple's frameworks are difficult and more difficult than they should be in my opinion. I think the frameworks will change once Swift is at 3.0.
I like this tutorial also. I would start with Simon Allardice's tutorials first then go to _Hacking with Swift_ or the eBook _A Swift Kickstart_