So you want to program iphone? Episode 2

Well my first week of attempting to program the iphone has so far been challenging.

After downloading x-code and getting started on the Nerd Ranch book my first application, a simple question and answer app seemed to work. It was not however without a few hitches.

• I didn't know how to open the application interphase where you draw the buttons and other objects on a mock iphone screen. When double clicking on the xib file it would not open. Couldnt find a menu item to open it and a google search only had technical gibberish beyond my capacity to understand. So i tried an old windows trick on the hunch that perhaps the application existed somewhere but was not associated with the xib file type.... I searched and opened the interphase GUI developer program and then BINGO i am in business.


• I made a bunch of coding errors which the program alerts you to, but it doesn't always tell you how to fix.


• I learnt by trial and error that (ID) will never work it needs to be (id).


• The are many core concepts to learn and it is hard going so far.


• It can be hard to find time to concentrate on it.

So You want to Develop Ipad apps? Episode 1

Episode 1

Somehow i got it into my head that it would be good to do an annual challenge - I had heard that Bill Gates reads an out of field book every year, then the facebook guy ( ) undertakes a new challenge every year and this years challenge is to not eat the meat of anything that he hasn't killed himself. Last year i decided to get back into regular gym weight training and have so far stuck it out averageng 2-3 times per week, not bad at 40. So I thought, why not learn how to develop iphone/ipad apps. Although this is a late start this year, better late than never!

Now one might ask why would anyone without a strong programming background even attempt such a thing? Good question. Well the challenge has to be... Well a challenge so it can't be something I already have a strong backgrund in, it has to be new. Anyway i do have a good base of general computer knowledge, some experience with flash and basic (and i mean simple) actionscipting for games. When I was 13-14 i also used to prorgram in Basic (the language) on the apple 2e, as well as a good backgrou in maths and spreadsheet calculations. So how hard can it be?

Step one.
Find the right resources.
Nowadays it is fairly easy to get your hands on digital resources, but a lot of them are not good. So my first point of call has been to google, amazon and itunes uni.

It seems that the best two books available are:

• Iphone programming - the Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Joe Coneay and Aaron Hillegas.



• Programming in Objective C 2.0 by Stephen Kochan

To boot - both are available as kindle books from amazon, but i have to wait for the next edition of the Kochan book which comes out very soon, no point buying an out of date edition.

Video podcasts from itunesU
I found this great video cast from Stanford called Developing Apps for ios. The lecturer is very good, however he says that you should have some background in C programming, and he is right. However he does cover concepts well and it is worth watching after some work using the above books, and to get a feel on how things work.

Computer and software
I have a mac computer which is essential, and joined the apple programmer program (is thst an oxymoron) as a developer for (free) and downloaded X-code the program you use to do all the programming.
I also have an iphone or ipad otherwise - why bother!

I will come back and add more stuff as I find it. Because I am an absolute beginner, I hope my journey will be of help to others.