learning IOS

[parrot#IM]

Can anyone suggest a good starting book for learning the basics of IOS 4 for developing apps for the Iphone? I have been using Visual Studio for developing apps for the PC using C++ and C# for 15 years and I find the IOS platform completely foreign to me. Actually, I feel stupid as I cannot seem to get the hang of developing views. The language seems very obtuse to me and I need to wrap my mind around the whole concept of IOS development. I have been using the book by the Big Nerd Ranch and also Fundamentals of IPhone Development by Matt Neuberg and I find that using their examples sometimes leads to compiler errors that I cannot correct. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[DanSilov]

I cannot speak for anyone, but in my experience full-scale books are a waste of time. Don't buy them, don't read them unless you absolutely have to.

Google is full of self-start guides or quick examples or demo apps that you can break-down into pieces and learn how to. And then you need to quickly move to your personal project and start working on it and solve real tasks.

Yes, you will read a lot of documentation, but there's nothing better than a combination of Apple Documentation and StackExchange. Apple tends to change a lot of stuff often, books rarely keep up.

 

[TamnoLice]

I learning Objective-C with a book from Apress "Beginning iPhone Development". That book helped me a lot and the examples were good with little errors in the code. But I also made the experience that some books have examples full of bugs. It is almost impossible to work through the examples.

 

[pmararav]

Since you already have the experience from other environments, I would recommend starting with the basics and do a search for "objective c apple pdf". One of top results will be an Apple white paper about obj-c (sorry, not allowed yet to post links...)

Then, you can start with some (actually pick one, doesn't matter which) books showing the basics of how to use xcode, setup a project, make and build a "Hello World" and get to know the elements and objects of iOS SDK.

After that and with your experience, it's gonna be easy.

edit: The Apress book mentioned above is really good.
edit2: (can post links now). The whitepaper is at http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/OOP_ObjC/OOP_ObjC.pdf

 

[parrot#IM]

Thanks for replies

Thanks to everyone who replied to my request for learning material for IOS. I agree with one commentator on experiencing errors while doing exercises, which is really frustrating. Also, I agree that probably the best way to learn is to determine a project or app you wish to complete and then just chug your way through it referencing Apple's documentation. Trying to completely read some of these instruction books is overwhelming. I am surprised to find that there is a big difference in syntax between Objective C and C++ and C#. Again, my biggest hurdle is understanding the view structure and how to use them as it is completely different from Visual Studio's which I find very intuitive.

 

[Mucho Spanish]

Try Lynda.com

We needed a lot more help than books and Google searches were able to provide. Try Lynda.com. Really helpful. Great instruction.

Dan & Aixa

 

[Apple Developer]

From my point of view, you've to touch the CODE while READING.
Don't read TOO MUCH and leave the CODE.
You've to touch the CODE and i suggest youtube videos for quick implementation of many things.

 

[mrnewell]

I learned to develop for iOS just using youtube. it's surprisingly helpful. You need to go through a bunch of videos, but it helps demonstrate what actual people do to code in Xcode. Just search "create basic game in Xcode iOS" on youtube and you'll find a ton of tutorials.

 

[Appidia]

I only used tutorials I found on the internet. Various ones. I haven't read any iOS development books.

 

[DAGASU]

Apple documentation is the best way, it goes step-by-step, but it will take you some time for sure, nothing is free.

 

[Timhewitt]

Go thru the Stanford University podcasts as well. They are very good. Do all the exercises.

 

[cosborn]

Google is the best resource I've found for anything programming. Even searching directly on good resource sites themselves, Google has been far better at finding what I was looking for than the searches on the actual coding/reference sites themselves for their own content.

 

[scientist88]

Programming in Objective-C book!

Programming in Objective-C, 3rd Edition by Stephen Kochan is an excellent starting point! It is designed for those with no programming experience, and ur experience with C will most certainly help! I highly recommend it!

 

[tomozaru]

I'd second the apple docs approach. Looks like you have some coding background and just need to learn the apple syntax. When running into something specific, try googling the error or what-have-you. Good luck.