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The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

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Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#31

Post by mckoss »

cpr wrote: post #16
drpancake wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MVC is fine. It's the way that your controllers are instantiated by a NIB that I find odd. It's too magical for me.

It's exactly the opposite of magical: you're simply building objects in IB that are "live" while you're building them and that then are freeze-dried when you save the file, and reconstituted at runtime. It's certainly magical in the sense that it's a beautiful way to do things. ;-)

I prefer a programming model that is not so complicated that you need an IDE to generate the code for you. Even watching the Apple tutorials on using XCode I was struck by how many magic incantations you have to kearn that seem totally opaque and unmotivated (just hold down command and drag this thing on top of that thing and set this property in the pop up - what?).

I think simple programs should be able to be expressed in one file and created in a simple text editor.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#32

Post by Timothee »

rimantas wrote: post #12
stevederico wrote: post #7

The Stanford iTunes U Courses should not be overlooked. They do a great job of taking you from crawling to running in no time. I enjoyed doing the homework too, it really increased my learning experience. Winter 2010- http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/iphone-application-devel... Spring 2009- http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/iphone-application-progr... Spring 2011 (Starting Soon)- http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs…

I think you missed the best one—Fall 2010 http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios-hd/... Downloads: http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/download...

Why is the one better than the other one?

I've followed parts of CS193P twice (can't remember which one) and both were pretty good. If this one is really better, I wouldn't like to miss it… :)

Oh I can not say enough good things about that class. Great teachers, great material.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#33

Post by xsmasher »

drpancake wrote: post #9

Coming from Python, web development and Android, I found interface Builder to be the trickiest part of iOS to learn. The way it instantiates some of your classes requires you to build up a really odd mental model; I still don't fully understand it after a couple of months. You're welcome to do it all in code, but it seems to be discouraged by many.

The nib is a data file - XML while developing, binary when shipping - that defines a bunch of views and how to connect them to a particular controller. That's it, that's all. You usually write the controller first, in code, and define certain "outlet" pointers in the interface of that controller.

Now in the nib you say "here are three buttons, connect them to outlets a, b, c." Now when Someone asks the controller for it's view it will create the views and connect the pointers in the manner you requested.

There is "magic" taking place, but no more so than the interaction between HTML and JavaScript in a web page. It may be unfamiliar at first, but not unfathomable.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#34

Post by cpr »

mckoss wrote: post #31
cpr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's exactly the opposite of magical: you're simply building objects in IB that are "live" while you're building them and that then are freeze-dried when you save the file, and reconstituted at runtime. It's certainly magical in the sense that it's a beautiful way to do things. ;-)

I prefer a programming model that is not so complicated that you need an IDE to generate the code for you. Even watching the Apple tutorials on using XCode I was struck by how many magic incantations you have to kearn that seem totally opaque and unmotivated (just hold down command and drag this thing on top of that thing and set this property in the pop up - what?). I think simple programs should be able to be expre…

You're missing the point: no code is being generated. Objects are being generated. The real objects you'll have at runtime are being generated. The real objects that will be freeze-dried to a file and reconstituted at runtime.

You're saving creating the hundreds of lines of codes that would be required to do this in a "normal" IDE.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#35

Post by gregparadee »

stevederico wrote: post #7

The Stanford iTunes U Courses should not be overlooked. They do a great job of taking you from crawling to running in no time. I enjoyed doing the homework too, it really increased my learning experience. Winter 2010- http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/iphone-application-devel... Spring 2009- http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/iphone-application-progr... Spring 2011 (Starting Soon)- http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs…

These are some of the best tutorials around as long as you have the time to watch them and act like you are actually in the class. Greatly helped me while designing an iPhone app my senior year.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#36

Post by mckoss »

cpr wrote: post #34
mckoss wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer a programming model that is not so complicated that you need an IDE to generate the code for you. Even watching the Apple tutorials on using XCode I was struck by how many magic incantations you have to kearn that seem totally opaque and unmotivated (just hold down command and drag this thing on top of that thing and set this property in the pop up - what?). I think simple programs should be able to be expre…

You're missing the point: no code is being generated. Objects are being generated. The real objects you'll have at runtime are being generated. The real objects that will be freeze-dried to a file and reconstituted at runtime. You're saving creating the hundreds of lines of codes that would be required to do this in a "normal" IDE.

no code is being generated

This seems a patently false statement. I would count as code any representation of procedural or configuration information that could be interpreted or executed in the running of an application.

If the underlying systems requires hundreds of lines to represent a simple object (like a button, panel, or toolbar), then maybe as a programming environment designer, you should go back and simplify your underlying representation, rather than add a layer of UI to generate hundreds of lines of code.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#39

Post by deveren »

stevederico wrote: post #7

The Stanford iTunes U Courses should not be overlooked. They do a great job of taking you from crawling to running in no time. I enjoyed doing the homework too, it really increased my learning experience. Winter 2010- http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/iphone-application-devel... Spring 2009- http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/iphone-application-progr... Spring 2011 (Starting Soon)- http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs…

Where did you find the homework? I've downloaded all of the classes, and slides, but I wondered if I could find the assignments someplace. Of course, I'm assuming that you didn't actually take the course at Stanford...

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#40

Post by deveren »

guelo wrote: post #17

The fine print for new iOS devs: If you succeed in overcoming all of the obstacles ahead of you and actually create a worthwhile app on Apple's platform their is a good chance they will screw you over without warning or explanation by blocking your app, yanking your app, changing the rules, calling you a pornographer, randomly charging you new fees, prohibiting whatever it is your app does, changing the hardware you'…

Do you actually have an app currently on the app store? I've run into none of those problems. In fact, any time I have an issue with anything, they are very accomodating. Especially, expedient considering how many questions they get daily from developers. If it's as you say, what reason would there be to ever develop on their platform? It simply would make sense!
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