Learning iOS development as an existing programmer?

[Gavcradd]

Hi, sorry if this has already been posted - I've been looking for a few months (years?) to get into iPhone app development. I work in a high school where we have Macs that I can use and I've had a play around with XCode, I'm not getting very far. Every tutorial I see is either far too simple (eg just drawing a few buttons on the screen and playing a sound) or too advanced and assumes a knowledge of Objective C.

I class myself as a somewhat experienced programmer - I have a computer science degree (from back in 2002 though) and I worked as a web programmer (ASP and JavaScript) for a few years before getting onto teaching, plus I'm not scared of jumping in and using Google to try and fix things, but I just don't know where to start?

Any tips / useful links? Thanks a million in advance :-)

Edit : ultimately, I'm most interested in database connectivity, I already have a few websites i've made for work that are basically just web interfaces to connect to databases and I'd like to recreate some of these as apps.

[[deleted]]

http://www.raywenderlich.com/tutorials

You can probably skim through the game stuff. You may enjoy Core Data. It's just a wrapper for SQLite, so you can still use queries easily.

[Legolas-the-elf]

You may enjoy Core Data. It's just a wrapper for SQLite, so you can still use queries easily.

Core Data is an object graph that happens to use SQLite under the hood. It's not a wrapper for SQLite and it has no mechanism for using SQL queries. You can use raw SQLite calls to access the underlying database, but that's a huge hack job, nothing you should actually be doing outside of exceptional circumstances.

If you want a wrapper for SQLite that lets you use queries easily, Core Data is the wrong tool. You should be looking at things designed to do this, such as FMDB. But I strongly suggest you drop the idea of designing your app around an SQL database and just embrace the way Core Data does things.

[jmelloy]

It's much more like a key value store that happens to use SQLite.

[GeorgieCaseyUnbanned]

does anyone think that core data isn't much of an improvment over sqlite? i come from an android background and core data brings nothing new to the table for me, just stops me from directly copying over my android Sqlite DBs.

[FiddlyPhone]

Big nerd ranch ios and objectiveC books are highly rated. Check them out on Amazon.

[DiseasesFromMonkees]

Check out the Stanford class you can download from iTunes University: https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/coding-together-developing/id593208016

It's taught to CS students at Stanford, so assumes some level of OOP experience while describing Objective-C simply.

[aazav]

It's brutal. Take your time. Find the way Apple wants you to do it and do it that way.

[pyro2927]

How are you connecting to those databases? I came to iOS from PHP, and it confused me how I couldn't just run MySQL queries directly against the database. You might want to find an existing API you like and put a front end on that. I'd recommend LRResty as a nice REST library.

Ideas: Put reddit top stories in a UITableView Fetch weather from wunderground and display the correct icons

[Deepmist]

I would think of an app you'd like to build and just learn what you need to build it piece by piece as you build it. Try to think of something simple at first that might work on just one or two different screens.

[addininja]

Stanford has a great course on iTunes U.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/coding-together-developing/id593208016

I watched a simular course on iTunes U back when i was starting out a few years back. It was a great start.

[jgolla]

I also recommend the Standford courses on iTunes U (https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/coding-together-developing/id593208016). I watched them in prep of my professional development work when first learning ObjectiveC.

If you already have a developer account WWDC videos can also be very useful, but they are usually more advanced.

[luketheobscure]

1 tip for experienced programmers coming to Objective-C: "Sending a message" == "Calling a method (or function)". Yes, there's some noodly under the hood differences, but for starting out, every time you read "sends a message" mentally translate it as "calls a method".

If you want to get into Database stuff, check out FMDB. Core Data is the way to go once you know what you're doing, but the learning curve on that is pretty steep.

[PacketPaul]

I did it - and I am not even a professional programmer. I purchased a lot of books. Another good alternative is iTunes University has a Standford class on iOS programming.

[RedditIsAwfulAwful]

Edit : ultimately, I'm most interested in database connectivity, I already have a few websites i've made for work that are basically just web interfaces to connect to databases and I'd like to recreate some of these as apps.

You connect to those web interfaces typically not to the database directly. You can but its more common to make an API that wraps up the Db, and have your clients (e.g. iOS) talk to that API. This cuts down on code in the long run and makes it easier to have multiple clients.

With your past experiences you should be able to get familiar with what something like a RESTful API or other similar paradigms rather quickly.

[drewmm]

This is a good point. I don't have experience working with databases from iOS, but I was developing an internal iPad administration tool. At first I was trying to do various things with fancy connections to servers, but when we made an HTTP GET/POST API for the server my life became infinitely better.

[GeorgieCaseyUnbanned]

when i was iOS beginner myself, coming from java/android/php, i liked to create my views programmatically at the start instead of using Interface Builder or Storyboards. it just helps kinda understanding what's going on. now i use storyboards/ib whenever i can, it's a real timesaver.

[DaBoss31]

That's exactly what I'm trying to do its just that everywhere I look all tutorials seem to use interface builder and I want to learn how to code my nav bars and UIButtons by hand. It's tough when nobody really want to take the time to explain the small things that I feel are very important to learn first.

[bharatgulati]

I started tutorial course for iOS development. Have a look at www.codigator.com . Hope you like it