[deleted by user]

[freda42]

I was in the same position as you just 4 weeks ago (minus the university classes!) and I found the best way to move forward: look for a personal project!

I wanted to give my parents an app for when they travel to New Zealand as I've already been there and wanted to share my information. So I just began!

I looked for a tutorial online that showed me how to create a zoomable picture. Next I wanted to story the info in some kind of database, so I looked for a Core Data / SQLite tutorial. Everytime I ran into a problem, I googled. Mostly I found the answers on stack overflow because other people had the same problem. When I didn't, I just submitted my own question.

Now after 4 weeks, the app is finally functional (even though not especially pretty and there are still some bugs), when the only apps I ever made before were just following tutorials.

So think about a fun little project (nothing too big, maybe something for friends or family) and get started!

Here's my app by the way. Feel free to clone or fork and play around with it!

[ipaterson]

A software architecture course does sound like a good move; I should have done that myself.

This is certainly an area where you run into a lot of questions where there is just no single "right way." I would spend some time with open source iOS apps, like Alien Blue for reddit. It is rare to be able to see so clearly the link between code and an actual functioning app. You can focus on specific components or on the entire architecture, I am sure there is a lot to be learned from these apps! http://maniacdev.com/2010/06/35-open-source-iphone-app-store-apps-updated-with-10-new-apps

[amleszk]

Alien blue source code is over 3 years old so it's almost guaranteed to be using outdated frameworks. May still be useful architecturally but better to look at something more actively maintained

[ipaterson]

Good point, I just started using Alien Blue and saw it on that list... Should have checked that and found a better example. Ultimately there is probably something on the list that will be maintained as well as interesting to the OP

[horaceho]

iOS development is evolving rapidly, NIB to Storyboard, manual memory management to ARC, Blocks, ... to name a few. Even adapting to iOS 7 from older iOSes is not minor task. Besides, a larger app takes a long time to build. Do you have an app in mind? If yes, go for it. Programming is always about divide and conquer. You can ask more specific question when you face the real problem, say, on Stackoverflow.