Want to Build iOS Apps?

[Bruh]

If you want to learn how to build iOS apps, here is a great place to start: Loading…

Apple has a huge library with everything you want to know: iOS Developer Library

I know this is not surprising or hard to find, but I had no idea it existed. Nobody every suggested it to me. Sorry if this has been posted before.

 

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[Bruce]

Good post, but I'd say this is mainly good for reference.

I'd suggest checking out Stanford's iOS development course at Stanford on iTunes U

 

[loop101]

Ray Wenderlich's tutorials are excellent.

Ray Wenderlich | Tutorials for iPhone / iOS Developers and Gamers

Also David Smith's indie-developer podcast:

Developing Perspective

Stanford University just updated their iOS podcasts for Winter 2013. For some reason, probably legal, they changed the name to "Coding Together":

https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/coding-together-developing/id593208016

 

[jeandearme]

Great! Now we have both Android and iOS threads to follow for newbies

 

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[zzaxx]

I just spent 4 months teaching myself how to make apps and I'm now at the point where I'm building my product. Your mileage may vary. I'm not a programmer, but I'm an engineer who has done a fair bit of C++ programming, so I wasn't completely new to it.

I'm not in the Fastlane yet, but for what its worth, here's what I've learned:

The best iOS programming books I found were the Big Nerd Ranch Books. I had them on my iPad next to my Mac and did everything in the books. Start with the Objective C book and then go to the iOS programming book.

Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

After working through these books, I had a good handle on how to build an app for iPhone or iPad from scratch. But I wanted to learn how to do graphics and game programming (I'm building interactive kids books). Scrounging around the Web, I discovered that cocos2D is a widely used 2D engine, and that cocos2d-x is cross-platform. I found this book, which was terrific, and which I refer to daily:

Cocos2d-x by Example Beginner's Guide

From this book, I learned how to do animations, particle effects, sound effects, you name it. I ended up switching to C++ to use Cocos2d-x, with the hope I'll be able to port to other devices (Windows Mobile, Android) more easily. There's a whole bunch of other tools that I learned about for texture packing, particle effects, font design, skeletal animations, and sound effects.

A few more tips that weren't obvious to me when I started:
- If you want to focus on iOS and only have a windows computer, get a Mac Mini for $200-$300 as a start. I bought one on eBay for $245. The Apple Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is free. It's called XCode, and is pretty decent.
- iOS might be better than Android to start because your testing requirements are easier. Coming from the engineering world, I can tell you that testing can become a huge cost driver for development. This is why I'm focusing on iOS for now.
- If you want to do games or something similar, start learning how to use an engine early. I was going to use Unity, but decided Cocos2d meets my needs - plus it's simpler and completely open source
- I paid the $99 to Apple to register as a developer and it's totally worth it. Although XCode has built in simulators for iPad and iPhone, nothing compares to testing it on actual devices. You won't be able to do that without registering as a developer.

Hope this helps some of you. Good Luck!

 

[loop101]

I like the Big Nerd books, but they are for IOS 5, so things are a little different under IOS 6. I have some IOS 6 books, but now IOS 7 is coming out. My only real gripe is that the XCode GUI changes just enough to make the older tutorials hard to follow. I think once you know what you are doing, the GUI changes probably don't matter. I'm a nooby, so if things don't exactly match, it's a major crisis, lol.

A really interesting book is the O'Reilly book by Matt Neuberg called "Programming iOS 6". It's like the "anti-Hello World" book. He says right up front:

"...there’s no attempt, in this book, to rush the reader into hands-on programming. My book does not pander to a desire for the false, cheap gratification of making believe that one is a programmer merely because one can parrot some instructions. My book is about knowledge — hard-won, rigorously gained knowledge. It’s about gaining an understanding of what you are doing when you program iOS 5. It calls for a substantial investment of time and thought, and many pages elapse before any practical programming is demonstrated."

And he isn't kidding!

 

[zzaxx]

Thanks, loop - that sounds like a great book. I'll check it out.

 

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[decaobr]

Start with the Objective C book and then go to the iOS programming book.

Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide

Hey Zzaxx, iam a little late to the party, but if you could answer me, that would be great.

I know a little about C, and i have intermediate experience with Php programming, and a took a course about objective-c on udemy, and everything on object-c seems to pretty strait forward, do you think i would still benefit from this book? do they focus on ios development?

I currently trying to build some apps, but some times i just get lost in xCode, without know what to do next.

I already have the iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide, but i did not read it yet, so i will be doing that in the next month, so the real question is, you think a should read the objective-c book first?

 

[zzaxx]

If you're comfortable with Classes and Object-Oriented programming and the syntax of Objective-C, you can probably skip the first book. It helped me a lot because I hadn't done any serious programming for about 12 years. Now I'm using both Objective-C and C++ in XCode.

 

[justinistech]

Also, just a personal opinion, if you want to learn how to build iOS apps, i would suggest messing around with open source code. Getting comfortable with that (Code wise) , then learning more & more on top of it.

 

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[loop101]

After reading several books about XCode and iOS development, I really didn't understand how to put it all together until I watched Simon Allardice 6 hr tutorial on lynda.com ($25/month). The course is "iOS SDK Essential Training (2012)". I'm now watching his Objective-C class, but it is about 50% OSX instead of iOS, but still useful. I'm going to re-watch the first course in a few days.

It is about 100x more efficient to see someone use the XCode GUI than to read a text description of how to do it. Now I can go back to all my books and understand what they were trying to describe! I was going to cancel my monthly membership after watching the iOS course a few times, but I hear they are working on the iOS7 videos now, so I will keep it and see what else they make.

If you are having trouble "grasping" XCode/iOS development, I strongly suggest checking out Simon's course, even if its just for one month. I never subscribed to lynda.com before, apparently they got 7000 other videos I can watch, but I am focused on iOS.

Here are the classes I am taking:
iOS SDK Essential Training (2012)
Objective-C Essential Training
Core Data for iOS and OS X
iOS 6: iOS System Resources
Building a Note-Taking App for iOS

 

[jeandearme]

Anyone who wants to try out if Objective C is for him/her - give this a try:
iOS - Code School

You can try for free the first course and lick some basic stuff.

 

[decaobr]

After reading several books about XCode and iOS development, I really didn't understand how to put it all together until I watched Simon Allardice 6 hr tutorial on lynda.com ($25/month). The course is "iOS SDK Essential Training (2012)". I'm now watching his Objective-C class, but it is about 50% OSX instead of iOS, but still useful. I'm going to re-watch the first course in a few days.

It is about 100x more efficient to see someone use the XCode GUI than to read a text description of how to do it. Now I can go back to all my books and understand what they were trying to describe! I was going to cancel my monthly membership after watching the iOS course a few times, but I hear they are working on the iOS7 videos now, so I will keep it and see what else they make.

If you are having trouble "grasping" XCode/iOS development, I strongly suggest checking out Simon's course, even if its just for one month. I never subscribed to lynda.com before, apparently they got 7000 other videos I can watch, but I am focused on iOS.

Here are the classes I am taking:
iOS SDK Essential Training (2012)
Objective-C Essential Training
Core Data for iOS and OS X
iOS 6: iOS System Resources
Building a Note-Taking App for iOS

Just to reinforce your comment, I also recommend lynda, and the same courses that you did, plus after finishing the IOS SDK Essential Training (2012), i think is a good idea to watch the IOS 6 SDK NEW FEATURES, since the Essential Training Course, was build on top of the ios 5.

When i finish this course i was able to create same pretty simple applications, like calculators and stuff like that, i currently stuck on going beyond that, mainly because i'm not focused on that. But the courses are pretty good and well worth the 25$.

 

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[letmein]

I have extensive Java background (more than 10 years of industry experience, mainly in web based application with heavy backend, database involvment). I like the lure of iOS apps, Have no current ios experience and don't even own a mac. It will be much easier for me to switch to android (utilixing my Java background) but Android seems not the money maker that I would want it to be.

Frankly, the iOS users (I'm overly generalizing here) are the the hard core geek types and "typical" consumers who use the shiny apps and are not too tech savvy. Hence more prince to buying the apps and the Android crowd seems little too tech savvy and doesn;t spend a whole lot on apps.

Have been torn between two paths: go for iOS, significant time and money investment. or go for Android, not a whole lot of money involved ufront, already have windows machine and Java experience..

I guess there's a third option too, just because I can program, should I try to learn the mobile apps or hire out some developers with experience. Coming from software development background, I understand the process and have no intimidation what soever of the tech..

Sorry about the rambling on but would love to hear from fellow "drivers" (is that what's the members called here )

 

[damien275x]

I hate objective C, as I've always been a website developer. I wrote my third iOS Application 'TriviCup' in HTML5, Javascript and CSS. I can port it to iOS, Android and Windows with much less effort as I don't have to write it 3 times over and manage 3 sets of code . Read up on PhoneGap and mobile frameworks if you have already started learning website development. You can capitalize on your existing skills and create apps too.

There are a lot of instances where you need to code native. Highly interactive games etc etc. But when I look at what most people on this forum are trying to achive, they mainly want a bit of information displayed, database ,save,edit,search functions. All very achievable using web technologies. A lot of developers get on their high horse and dismiss web development, these are mainly C# experts - but I make money on the Ads and the userbase is growing. Do my users really give a shit what language an app is written in? Most couldn't tell you. It either works or it doesn't. They either like playing it, or they delete it. Esp for free apps

 

[MattCour]

There is some amazing talent out there regarding app developers! Have you guys considered outsourcing app development to a freelance programmer or agency? A friend from my mastermind group launched Split Pic 2.0 on iOS and he's had really good success so far. It's ranked # 24 on the Top Free Photo and Video Charts which is pretty kick a$$. It's a really cool but simple photo app. He hired a team to build it for him cheaply...

 

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