iPhone Developer Course

I am really tempted to actually go on a course rather than rely on on-line courses and books.    The problem with self teaching is that you never know if you have learnt the best way to implement a solution and if you are making the most efficient code choices - everything has an amateur feel to it.

The only course that seems to be really good is Leeds NTI but it is really hard to justify £1000+.   I have started to follow Dave Verwer on twitter as he seems to know his stuff!!

Its also tricky to find the time to commit to learning xCode as I work as a programmer - the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is stare at a screen!

Stanford University

Downloaded Stanford University iTunes programming Course and printed the lessons slides (yes thank you for the black background - now have no printer ink left - good to see 2010 version is white!)

Watched all of the lessons and completed most of the assignments (HelloPoly etc) - some worked without any problems - some I resorted to downloading a sample solution and working the answer back.    I was disappointed that there was no Core Data module (Winter 2010 version does include this).  But overall worth doing - I definitely learnt more by trying the assignments and getting it wrong and then having to work out the solution.

This course also made me realise that I needed to work on my Objective C so I invested in Learn Objective-C on the Mac by Mark Dalrymple and Scott Knaster - this filled in some gaps.   I also bought 'Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass' (I am a sucker for the 'buy 2 for x amount' marketing ploy that Amazon offer!!!).    I know this is probably a really good bok and very important but it still sits on my office shelf and makes me feel guilty as it remains unread!

iPhone Developers Program

I have signed up to the iPhone developers program - at a cost of £69.   You need to be a member to deploy your application to your device rather than just viewing it in the simulator.

Apple Developers

My new shiny MacBook

Well new to me!!  I bought a refurbised Macbook 13" (250GB HD, 4GB RAM) from http://www.notebooks2go.co.uk/ at a cost of £500.  My new Macbook arrived within 24 hours - nice and clean.

I tried to install the xCode developers kit from Apple IOS developers but hit a few problems with 'disk not mounting'.   Realised how rusty I was using a Mac - last one I used on a regular basis looked like..

I am ashamed to admit that I even had to look up how to get a screen shot (Utilities - Grab).   I did not realise how 'Microsofted' I had become until this point!

After a few more false starts - the SDK download worked (only 12 wait for each download - I live in the sticks!)

First book finished!

I have read most of  Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche and most of it has made sense.   The bits I missed were the actually typing in of the exercises (which are obviously quite key!) but the theory made sense.  Although I do very much feel like a poor mans developer having to map out exercises on paper rather than coding on an actual Mac!

I am not keen to spend hundreds of pounds on equipment until I can be sure what the return on an iPhone development is likely to be.

Publish Post

iPhone Development for Working Mums

I also believe that the fact that Apple deal with the 'customer' bit would make my life a lot easier!   With my current job I can get a call at any time with system support issues (although I technically work part-time!).   This has resulted in many an embarrassing moment where I have a screaming toddler wanting a biscuit while juggling a desperate user needing their system back up!   I have taken many a call hiding in the toilet!

As users will access my application via iTunes downloads - I will get feedback or requests about my iPhone applications but I can deal with them via email which is much more toddler friendly!

Where to start??!??

My quest to learn how to develop iPhone applications begins today!    We have a 4 hour drive planned so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to start reading Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche.   If this book makes sense then the next step is to start putting some money into this project and invest in an actually Mac and who knows maybe an actual iPhone!

This would be a big step as although I have a development/database background VB, SQL, Oracle, HTML, PHP and some very rusty C++ skills (I have written any C code for about 15 years!!)

The reason I decided to learn how to develop iPhone applications was due to an article that I read in London's Metro - it described 3 programmers who had a similar background to me that had published apps.    I remember thinking that if I hadn't missed so much time in my career having my 3 children - I would probably be doing something cutting edge like developing apps like they were instead of working on legacy systems (and yes still supporting/extending DOS apps!)   But I decided it was worth a bit more research especially as my youngest was about to start pre-school so why not!

The other reason that I was attacted to this type of development was that as Apple obviously act as a distributor via iTunes - there couldn't be an easier way to find your target market - although they take their percentage it didn't seem like a bad deal.

Also - when buying an iPhone application you are not making a considered purchased  - most people spend a less than  a couple of minutes thinking about spending 59p.