macOS Wanting to learn about programming and xcode

[Beta-guy]

I am not a programmer, but I'd like to learn. I'm also interested in using xcode to do this, I installed it from my OSX installation DVD, and updated it but I don't see an icon to launch xcode.

Please give me advice on how to launch xcode or how to use this software, and if you could provide me with some good online resources for learning how to program in C that would be great.

 

[robbieduncan]

XCode is in /Developer/Applications.

 

[gnasher729]

XCode is in /Developer/Applications.

After finding XCode, find a good book about C programming, or jump into deep water by using the example projects in /Developer/Applications/Examples. One of the examples is the complete TextEdit, as far as I can see it is the exact code that ships with MacOS X.

 

[miles01110]

if you could provide me with some good online resources for learning how to program in C that would be great.

http://www.google.com/search?q=lear...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

[Bill McEnaney]

Beta-guy, here's some information about the C book I recommend. (http://knking.com/books/c2/index.html). But since programming is new to you, I'm hoping your first programming language will be much higher-level than C. A much-higher-level language will help you focus largely on the problem you're trying to solve. Unfortunately, if you're like me, C would tempt you to think too much about minute details and too much about how to make tiny changes that won't speed up your program much. I'd try Python.

Or, if you want to join geekdom , try How to Design Programs: An Introduction to Programming and Computing by Mathias Felleisen, Robert Bruce Findler, Matthew Flatt, and Shiram Krishnamurthi. Although they wrote it for high school students, professional programmers learn a lot from it, too.

Why do I say "geekdom?" Because that book will teach you the Scheme programming language instead of C. Amazon.com sells the current edition of How to Design Programs. An older edition is online, too, at (http://htdp.org/). Many programming language books tell you a lot about how to use a programming language and too little about how to design programs. From chapter one on, the book about Scheme helps you do both.

 

[Cromulent]

Why do ask say "geekdom?" Because that book will teach you the Scheme programming language instead of C. Amazon.com sells the current edition of How to Design Programs. An older edition is online, too, at (http://htdp.org/). Many programming language book tell you a lot about how to use a programming language and too little about how to design programs. From chapter one on, the book about Scheme helps you do both.

Not only that but PLT Scheme comes with a nice GUI editor for Mac OS X and special settings designed just for that book to help you get started.

 

[Bill McEnaney]

Sounds great. I may be the only Unix fanatic who doesn't adore emacs.

Not only that but PLT Scheme comes with a nice GUI editor for Mac OS X and special settings designed just for that book to help you get started.

 

[thecheda]

Read

Read up on a lot of material and tutorials online. I found the "For Dummies" literature to be helpful at times. You just have to have hands on experience in order to grow.