Ask HN: Experienced programmer, beginner to iOS (objective-C). Where to begin?

What is the quickest way for an experienced programmer to come up to speed on iOS?

Looking for recommendations on a good book, tutorials. Pointers to good repositories on github also appreciated. I have started reading open-source code from some apps.

I want to write an app which needs custom UI elements (going beyond XCode's available UI elements). An example: a flipboard like app. No game dev.

- I am comfortable in C, C#, Python. I can write Javascript when needed for my web-apps.

- NO experience with Objective-C. Fairly comfortable with ANSI-C.

- I have written web-apps: HTML, CSS, JS as needed.

- I have written desktop apps: So, I am familiar with how to use available UI elements with code behind.

I see clutch.io, RubyMotion, MonoTouch as options too. Any feedback from folks on these?

For your level of experience I would go would go with Kochan - Programming in Objective-C 4th edition.

There is also a free course for iPhone programming from Stanford (video lectures).

MonoTouch is a good alternative if you prefer to use C#, but you will need to pay 99$/year to Apple + 399$ for Monotouch. The good thing is that you can evaluate MonoTouch and pay after you are comfortable with the tool.

RubyMotion is too young to be used in a large application. Also learning Ruby and Cocoa in the same time can be difficult. I think RubyMotion is a good fit for an experienced Ruby programmer that wants to start coding on iOS. Another potential problem with RubyMotion is that it is currently developed by a single person, which can be problematic on long term.

That been said, muy advice is to go on the Objective-C route since you are already comfortable with C. Objective-C is a small language and an experienced C programmer can be up to speed in a matter of days.

The real challenge is in learning the iOS libraries and not the programming language.

I'd say there's no quick way to do it, the message passing of obj-c is very different than the event-based slots & signals programming you are used to. And that's before the hell-which-is-InterfaceBuilder. Since you already familiar with programming, I'd suggest the Big Nerd Ranch guides at bignerdranch.com

Most online examples won't give you the details about the important stuff - single inheritance vs. categories, delegates and message passing in the runtime, extending a protocol, etc. You may see it in the code, but there won't be any theory or reasoning behind it to help you.

As a side note, you can track your learning progress by how much you hate XCode with specific examples of how it ruined your day.

Can't speak to clutch.io, but the other 2 just seem to get in the way of someone who already knows Ruby, C#, and obj-c. Do you really need another layer of abstraction if you want to learn something at a lower level?

Stanford's course is excellent. If you're starting out, watch a lecture a day alongside any other reading / researching you do.

The nice thing about the Stanford course is that it covers a lot of ground, ranging from good code design, to all the major Cocoa components, to details about most of the important ios lifecycles.

Read the docs from Apple. Believe or not, they are the best resources for an experienced developer. Start with the Objective-C 2.0 book/entry. Then, go from there.

Of course, if you didn't say you were experienced, I'd have suggested that you start with the (what now must be like a) gazillion different apress/o'reilly books on the topic.

Good luck!

The book: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/cocoa/...