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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

#41

Post by totalforge »

Timothee wrote: post #32
rimantas wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Winter 2010, taught by Paul Hegarty, is the best introduction I've found. I have some books, I've watched some Apple videos, but I was still confused. Mr. Hegarty really explains things the right way. Highly recommended.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#42

Post by deveren »

transmit101 wrote: post #11
marksu wrote: post #8

Yes – programming is fun to hop into, but just a heads up: the most difficult process to learn and master is the marketing and promotion part of releasing an app. I feel that two blog posts linked in this article touches this subject in an interesting way: http://struct.ca/2010/the-story-so-far/ and http://blog.endloop.ca/blog/2010/08/12/100k-in-4-months-a-ni... That said, I would recommend Corona - http://www.anscam…

Really not sure I agree with that. Coding is tough, and in my experience developing iOS apps well (and Cocoa apps in general to a lesser extent) is one of the most difficult forms of programming. And as for marketing and promotion, I'd say even more challenging is coming up with an idea which doesn't need marketing or promotion :)

Amen to that! It's creating a killer app, by coding, which makes an app worthwhile enough where marketing and promotion almost become moot. I'm currently trying to update my own app after outsourcing most of the code. It's good, but I need other things that people want to talk about. That's what separates apps that sell, and those who don't.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#43

Post by deveren »

transmit101 wrote: post #11
marksu wrote: post #8

Yes – programming is fun to hop into, but just a heads up: the most difficult process to learn and master is the marketing and promotion part of releasing an app. I feel that two blog posts linked in this article touches this subject in an interesting way: http://struct.ca/2010/the-story-so-far/ and http://blog.endloop.ca/blog/2010/08/12/100k-in-4-months-a-ni... That said, I would recommend Corona - http://www.anscam…

Really not sure I agree with that. Coding is tough, and in my experience developing iOS apps well (and Cocoa apps in general to a lesser extent) is one of the most difficult forms of programming. And as for marketing and promotion, I'd say even more challenging is coming up with an idea which doesn't need marketing or promotion :)

Amen to that! It's creating a killer app, by coding, which makes an app worthwhile enough where marketing and promotion almost become moot. I'm currently trying to update my own app after outsourcing most of the code. It's good, but I need other things that people want to talk about. That's what separates apps that sell, and those who don't.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#44

Post by neild »

mckoss wrote: post #36
cpr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 simplif…

Cocoa doesn't require hundreds of lines to represent a simple object. Here's code to make a button:

    UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect];
    [button setTitle:@"Button" forState:UIControlStateNormal];
That's it. Two lines for a basic button.

Of course, if you want to display the button:

    button.frame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 80, 20);
    [view addSubview:button];
...which is a big part of why Interface Builder is handy, because it saves you from trying to figure out exactly how large you want the button to be and where to put it.

Now, when you put together all the objects in a moderately complicated UI, you will end up with hundreds of lines of code. Some people find it easier to work with this visually in Interface Builder. Others find it easier to manually construct the UI in code. Either method works perfectly well. I generally use a mix of both, depending on the nature of the UI element I'm working with.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#45

Post by mckoss »

neild wrote: post #44
mckoss wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 simplif…

Cocoa doesn't require hundreds of lines to represent a simple object. Here's code to make a button: UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect]; [button setTitle:@"Button" forState:UIControlStateNormal]; That's it. Two lines for a basic button. Of course, if you want to display the button: button.frame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 80, 20); [view addSubview:button]; ...which is a big part of why Inter…

Very helpful. Thanks!

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#47

Post by rimantas »

totalforge wrote: post #41
Timothee wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Winter 2010, taught by Paul Hegarty, is the best introduction I've found. I have some books, I've watched some Apple videos, but I was still confused. Mr. Hegarty really explains things the right way. Highly recommended.

I guess you mean the same as me: Fall 2010? These names a tricky, Fall 2010 is really Fall-Winter 2010, and comes after winter 2010 which was winter-spring. What Stanford calls "Winter 2010" was taught by Alan Cannistraro and Josh Shaffer, and what I reffered to as Fall 2010 was indeed by Paul Hegarty.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#48

Post by jodrellblank »

mkramlich wrote: post #46

The Apple docs already explain this pretty well. Not too hard. It's weird we live in a world of hand-holding comfort and plentiful documentation on almost everything and yet we still create more.

Not too hard.

That's a tautologically pointless thing to say.

It's weird we live in a world of hand-holding comfort and plentiful documentation on almost everything and yet we still create more.

How terrible we are for wanting a world of comfort instead of superior discomfort and confusion.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#49

Post by jranck »

mkramlich wrote: post #46

The Apple docs already explain this pretty well. Not too hard. It's weird we live in a world of hand-holding comfort and plentiful documentation on almost everything and yet we still create more.

What works for you may or may not work for someone else. I don't think I'm alone when I say that more quality resources on a subject is never a bad thing.

Re: The Complete Guide for Starting iPhone and iOS Development

#50

Post by wallflower »

neild wrote: post #44
mckoss wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 simplif…

Cocoa doesn't require hundreds of lines to represent a simple object. Here's code to make a button: UIButton *button = [UIButton buttonWithType:UIButtonTypeRoundedRect]; [button setTitle:@"Button" forState:UIControlStateNormal]; That's it. Two lines for a basic button. Of course, if you want to display the button: button.frame = CGRectMake(10, 10, 80, 20); [view addSubview:button]; ...which is a big part of why Inter…

> Some people find it easier to work with this visually in Interface Builder.

All of our designers use IB to layout the UI. It works really well - as they don't have to touch the code and we don't have to touch the layout.

Unfortunately, if you are doing any kind of custom animation (think sliding/expanding), IB is useless - you'll have to set the frames in code.

In general, IB is great because it helps separate presentation from the code.

When I first started out, I hated IB, but I've come to accept the fact that it really does help productivity (when working with designers closely). If you hate IB, consider going Android - there is nothing like IB on Android. All XML and a simple (nothing like IB) layout editor.

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