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Closed 10 years ago.
I have started learning Objective C with no prior programming experience from the 'Become an X-Coder' eBook (http://download.cocoalab.com.s3.amazonaws.com/BecomeAnXcoder.pdf). My question is, if I want to be doing iPhone development, am I going in the right direction? Am I learning the wrong language, or should I be learning Cocoa Touch? As I said, I have no prior experience, and just need someone to point me in the right direction. Apoligies if I have put this in the wrong place. Thanks very much for your time.
The short answer is that Cocoa Touch is Objective-C. And now for the long answer...
Objective-C is the essence of Cocoa Touch, which refers to the frameworks which are built by Apple for iOS development. So basically, if you are learning Objective-C, you are learning part of Cocoa Touch. Cocoa touch refers specifically to the code libraries and frameworks written for the iPhone and iPad.
If you are starting out, you may want to learn C and then Objective-C. However, it's totally up to you. It may be helpful to know C, but not required.
If you decide to go with Objective-C as a first language, I recommend getting some books on the Objective-C language as well as some books on iOS development. I have read Head First iPhone Development (O'Reilly)Amazon | Google and Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Development in 24 hours (Amazon). Someone recommended looking into a publisher called Apress, but I haven't yet. There are also some great blogs to look at once you you get started. Matt Gallagher's Cocoa with Love is not a beginners blog, but it has some nice information there.
Finally, feel free to ask specific questions here on Stackoverflow and don't forget to use Google.
Good luck!
Personally, I started with Beginning iPhone Development by Jeff LaMarche. I liked the pace of the book and there were great relevant notes throughout the text as you went through sample projects.
After I felt a bit more comfortable with the language/platform, I dove into the three20 project. There's something super satisfying about being able to load up complex UI components, which three20 let's you do fairly easily. Plus, I found it a great way to find patterns on writing Objective-C.
Finally, I'd subscribe to a few Objective-C/iPhone blogs. Here are some that I read:
Able Pear: http://blog.ablepear.com/
Cocoanetics: http://www.cocoanetics.com/blog/
iPhone Programming Tutorial: http://icodeblog.com/
iDev Recipes: http://idevrecipes.com/ (really great idea)
Marco: http://www.marco.org/
Ole Begemann: http://oleb.net/
Ray Wenderlich: http://www.raywenderlich.com/
Jeff LaMarche: http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/
Wish you the best of luck!
Objective-C is the place to start. I would suggest Programming in Objective-C by Kochan and then move to iPhone Programming The Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Conway and Hillegass. As mentioned by others, I wouldn't start with C... Go Objective-C then a focus on iOS.
Related
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Closed 10 years ago.
I want to start programming for iOS. I already have a solid footing in Objective-C, so I am not looking for a guide on Objective-C. I am NOT a beginner.
Could any of you please point me in the right direction for tutorials on developing iOS apps, NOT for learning Objective-C?
Thank you very much!
If you want to follow written tutorials these are some I found helpful but I recommend you to go through iOS developer Library and Apple sample codes first. If you start following tutorials you will simply copy paste code snippets:
1) http://mobile.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/iphone/
2) http://www.raywenderlich.com/
3) http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/IOS_iPhone_iPad_eBooks (One of the best reource)
4) http://www.cimgf.com/about/
5) http://appsamuck.com/
And most important
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/navigation/
Before you get started here are few links from Apple which will help a lot and one must go through it once.
1) iOS App Programming Guide
2) Start Developing iOS Apps Today Recently Posted by Apple
3) Your Second iOS App Tutorial with Storyboards
4) Your First App Store Submission Guidelines about creating certificates and submitting Apps to App store
5) WWDC videos by Apple.
For specific example guides on making iPhone apps, have a look through the iOS tutorials on Mobiletuts. Their tutorials are usually well written, and easy to follow.
Ray Wenderlich's early tutorials (> 1-2 year ago) are also another good place to start. Recently he's been tackling much more advanced tutorials.
TreeHouse is also a good place to learn. They have some free tutorials, but otherwise there's a membership required. It's from the ThinkVitamin guys and their tutorials are A++ for clarity, detail, and quality.
I wrote a blog post on the subject about a year ago. Most of the resources are still relevant. I'd recommend reading through the following at least before releasing an app:
iOS App Programming - Good primer on the subject and worth reading because Apple published it.
Human Interface Guidelines - This is a must. It will keep you from making mistakes that get your app rejected from the app store.
Memory Management - ARC takes care of most of this, but it's worth having a cursory knowledge of it.
If you're doing non-game apps, read up on View Controller Programming and when I learned to program iPhone I referred to apple's Core Data Recipes frequently.
AppsAmuck has 31 example applications you can look at as well, albeit they have some bad habits/programming practices so take their tutorials with a grain of salt.
Go up to iTunes U and look for the stanford lecture series. They go through about 20 lectures on iPhone/iPad development. One of the early classes focuses on Obj-C, but it still has a glean towards using Obj-C for iPad/iPhone development, so it might be worth a watch.
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Closed 10 years ago.
I'm a total noob working in basics of C++ right now; I enjoy it, but find myself wondering if I'm not (sort of) wasting my time learning something archaic that won't be applicable to my interest in programming for iphone/ipad.
Should I be starting out with Obj-C, or will I be able to write better programs/ have more perspective if I continue learning C++?
I am a patient man. But I also want to be investing my time wisely.
Thanks!
-Andrew
C++ and Objective C are not as closely related as either C and Obj-C or C and C++. Frankly, just start with Objective C if you know you want to do iPhone or Mac programming. Second most important is the corresponding libraries, Cocoa (for mac) or Cocoa-touch (for iphone). Knowing the language isn't enough to get you productive in the platform.
There is nothing wrong with starting with objective-C. From personal experience I recommed it. I learned to program in objective-C before any other language and now I've made/worked on some very successful applications. As you become a better objective-C programmer you will naturally become better at programming overall, and C++ will be easy to pick up along the way if it's ever needed. The resources for objective-C and iPhone are vast and the language is fun to learn. If you need recommendations for good objective-C resources ask.
If you are going to iOS, you could start by learning C and then go to Obj-C or just start at Obj-C.
Learn obj-c. That's what you are going to use to program. Its always fun to think you'll gain a deep knowledge by learning a low lvl lang. Once you get into building iPhone apps, you'll find the debugging skills you need and use are more high level.
Just learn Obj-C. It's similar to C++ in the OOP features it implements, but the syntax is quite different. Also, it's good to that you're a patient guy, patience is massively important. I can't stress enough to start slow and make sure you learn Obj-C inside and out in addition to Cocoa before jumping into something as big as iPhone deving, or you'll burn out in frustration. In addition to Cocos-2D, be sure to check out 71 Squared. It's a great resource.
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Closed 10 years ago.
I want to learn how to use core-animation for the iPhone in a more serious manner; instead of just ripping other people's code to move a box a few pixels, I want to be able to write that code myself, and engage in translation, transformation, and other things with an understanding of the code I'm using to achieve it.
Unfortunately, the online documentation is, at best, rather dense. And while I have a good book for general iPhone programming, coreAnimation is a very large, complex area and it doesn't cover it in any real depth. Are there any good books that cover the subject?
Try Bill Dudney's Core Animation for Mac OSX and iPhone. The book does a fine job of walking through a lot of CA -- not all of which is available in the iPhone (yet?)
See also #neror's CA git project for good examples. #neror updates the project frequently and is a solid learning resource.
I have personally read "Core Animation: Simplified Animation Techniques for Mac and iPhone Development". This is a colorful book and quite easy to follow. This book assumes that you have some iPhone programming knowledge, so you will also need your general iPhone programming book. This book covers topics such as basic animation, path, what can be animated. The author would present you some code fragments, illustrating their ideas.
I would like to give you another suggestion.
You are asking for a good reference book about Core Animation. As mentioned above, I recommend "Core Animation: Simplified Animation Techniques for Mac and iPhone Development". However, in my experience, the book and other books on Core Animation aren't sufficient. None of the CA book is very well-written, I would rate them about 6 to 7 out of 10. Your best bet is learn from a concrete open source project. I recommend you GeekGameBoard from Apple. GeekGameBoard has two versions, the Apple version is written for MacOSX. There is a modified version for iPhone, check http://jens.mooseyard.com/2008/03/geekgameboard-getting-closer-to-iphone-ready/. Personally, I studied the source while refreshing my understanding from the book.
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Closed 11 years ago.
What the best books available right now on Mac and iPhone development ?
Thanks
Michael
These two books were good:
iPhone SDK Application
Development
iPhone In Action
The Apple online docs are actually pretty good too:
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/
I'd stay away from this one, I didn't think it was very good:
Programming in Objective C
You might want to consider some of these: http://cocoaheads.byu.edu/resources/book
In this order:
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X (The Bible)
Beginning iPhone Development (Long-winded but great for beginners)
iPhone SDK Development (Starts nicely, but gets a little too deep too fast. Still in beta)
Programming in Objective-C (Only down so far because I couldn't get through the first few chapters. Recommended by many, good for total programming beginners)
iPhone Cookbook (Full of mistakes, but good for learning stuff closer to the code)
iPhone in Action (I didn't learn anything from this book. Might be good for programming for Mobile Safari)
Learning Cocoa with Objective-C (Avoid)
This is mainly an iPhone list, but several are more general books.
The iPhone SDK Development looks very nice. I did not read it, but read a lot promising about it on the blog of one of the authors, Chris Adamson. The blog itself is very good reading for everybody interested in iPhone sound programming.
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Closed 10 years ago.
What is the best "how to" site to learn how to program for iPhone?
The iPhone Developer Connection by Apple themselves. On the site you will find.
Reference Documents outlining the
various technologies.
Tutorials and Getting Started Guides for each type
of thing to do with the iPhone
Sample
Code that shows off the power of the
SDK
Registered developers get
access to Videos showing everything
from installing the SDK to
publishing.
Also check out this iTunes U course (iTunes link) put out by Stanford that covers a look to good tips and items on iPhone Programming
Here is the course homepage at Stanford for the above course.
There is a very nice compilation here on SO:
What are the best Cocoa-Touch/iPhone programming blogs?
Here is a well written article on "Cocoa is my girlfriend" that describes how to create a small iPhone app from scratch:
Cocoa Touch Tutorial: iPhone Application Example
A good beginners article to learn Objective-C is Scott Stevensons "Learn Objective-C".
(As it was written in the pre-iPhone era, it targets Mac software developers, but it is about basic language concepts - so it valid for both platforms)
The official iPhone developer portal has all the docs and some tutorials.
I had started out looking at this site: http://www.appsamuck.com/ Its been a while, not sure if they've updated it but about back in Feb 2009 it was very helpful to me.
In my personal experience (I wasn't initially familiar with Objective-C or even C, for that matter - my programming background was PHP Javascript, and shell scripting), I found a number of books more helpful than any website - maybe this is the answer you're looking for:
"Programming in Objective-C 2.0" by Stephen Kochan (for learning the language. Until I had this book, I continued to be confused with most of Objective-C)
"iPhone SKD" published by O'Reilly (for getting an initial grasp of how to do things)
Developer Documentation (part of Xcode - try [Alt-double clicking] on a word in Xcode)
google search
stackoverflow.com
occasionally even the framework header files (in Xcode) of the libraries you're using
Using the first three tools, I found that I could figure out most of what I needed to know. When I was at a loss after checking those sources and doing a google search, this forum has been indispensable for learning what I need.