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OS X/iOS Programming

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OS X/iOS Programming

#1

Post by minischneides »

As a high school student I've been taught in class the fundamental principles of Visual Basic, and C++. I'm looking to extend my skills into a more satisfying project, seeking to do so either through writing a Mac OS X application, or an iOS application.

With this said, I'm fairly new to the whole "real world" programming thing, with most of my experience limited to writing command line projects. I'm currently working through Stephen Kochan's "Programming In Objective-C 2.0" and it seems so far to be pretty good.

Ultimately what I'm looking for from HN is a push in the right direction of what other resources are good for learning Objective-C, good places to learn about OS X programming and the iPhone/iPad SDK, and even some hints about what I might read to become better at the interface design aspect of my application.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#2

Post by makecheck »

If you feel comfortable with C++ to some degree, this transitional document might be helpful: http://ktd.club.fr/programmation/fichiers/cpp-objc-en.pdf

I've found it does a good job of explaining how Objective-C works, for someone with C++ background.

As far as interface design, I feel that Cocoa is something you just have to tinker with in order to learn. Apple has lots of sample code (register a developer login on developer.apple.com if you haven't). While there's plenty to read, I feel that to really understand things like connections and controllers in Interface Builder, you have to try to build things or inspect the interfaces in sample projects.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#3

Post by joubert »

The bible is certainly Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/cocoa®_programming_for_mac®...

The Apple documentation is outstanding. http://developer.apple.com/resources/

Check out ObjC and iOS podcasts.

My favorite Cocoa website it http://theocacao.com/

Delicious might also help you: http://delicious.com/tag/cocoa

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#4

Post by wanderingmango »

Kochan's book is good, but it is far from the "real world" when it comes to Cocoa programming. You don't really need most of what's in there. Just jump in with Hillegass' book and you'll be programming in cocoa much more quickly (I've used both books).

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#5

Post by samratjp »

First go through this[1] for a quick intro to Objective-C:

Then again, just checkout hw1[2] in Stanford - HelloWorld to iPhone SDK. This is the best hand-holding intro to Obj-c. If that doesn't suffice checkout the earlier class videos.

[1]http://courses.csail.mit.edu/iphonedev/ [2]http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#6

Post by twobar »

joubert wrote: post #3

The bible is certainly Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/cocoa®_programming_for_mac®... The Apple documentation is outstanding. http://developer.apple.com/resources/ Check out ObjC and iOS podcasts. My favorite Cocoa website it http://theocacao.com/ Delicious might also help you: http://delicious.com/tag/cocoa

Regarding interface design and user experience I'd like to highlight the Apple Human Interface Guidelines [1].

They are to the point, which makes them easy to read and great for everyone interested in UI design and UX.

[1] http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/UserExp...

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#7

Post by glhaynes »

If you're going to want to run your iOS apps on actual devices (not just the built-in simulator), you'll need a $99/year iPhone Developer membership from Apple. Said membership comes with access to videos from this year's Worldwide Developer Conference, many of which will be helpful to you.

EDIT: They're available to free dev accounts as well! Thanks for the corrections.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#8

Post by kingnothing »

glhaynes wrote: post #7

If you're going to want to run your iOS apps on actual devices (not just the built-in simulator), you'll need a $99/year iPhone Developer membership from Apple. Said membership comes with access to videos from this year's Worldwide Developer Conference, many of which will be helpful to you. EDIT: They're available to free dev accounts as well! Thanks for the corrections.

The videos are also available with a free developer account. I don't have a link offhand but it's at the bottom of the signup page.

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#9

Post by ugh »

glhaynes wrote: post #7

If you're going to want to run your iOS apps on actual devices (not just the built-in simulator), you'll need a $99/year iPhone Developer membership from Apple. Said membership comes with access to videos from this year's Worldwide Developer Conference, many of which will be helpful to you. EDIT: They're available to free dev accounts as well! Thanks for the corrections.

You don’t need to pay the money to get access to the videos. A free developer account will do. That free program a really hard to find, though, here’s the link: http://developer.apple.com/programs/register/

Re: OS X/iOS Programming

#10

Post by Hoff »

joubert wrote: post #3

The bible is certainly Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X - http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/cocoa®_programming_for_mac®... The Apple documentation is outstanding. http://developer.apple.com/resources/ Check out ObjC and iOS podcasts. My favorite Cocoa website it http://theocacao.com/ Delicious might also help you: http://delicious.com/tag/cocoa

Having looked at both in some detail, Daniel Steinberg's Cocoa Programming book http://pragprog.com/titles/dscpq/cocoa-programming might be preferable to Hillegass's book.
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