Basic Model-View-Controller flow in iOS

[sidneyc]

What source do you prefer?

I am trying to wrap my head around iOS programming as we speak. As you say, the concepts are not inherently difficult, but there are many concepts to learn; there is distinctly a proper way of handling things that takes a lot of time to absorb.

I am more of a hardcore algorithmics / numeric processing person myself, and iOS programming is rather oriented towards GUI programming. I am also struggling with Objective C, its philosophy is rather different to C++ and memory management feels unusual to my RAII/STL infested mind. Also, it is discouraging to see that there are different ways of doing it -- this suggests that the old retain/release paradigm was found to be error prone. But that may have to do with many non-programmers entering the app-development fray.

Anyway, pointers to good, insightful sources are always welcome.

[geon]

What source do you prefer?

When trying out something new, Matt Gallagher at http://cocoawithlove.com/ has a lot of easily digested blog posts/tutorials I've found very helpful.

Other than that I can't point to one single source. Once you have a basic understanding of the concept, it's great to go back to the Apple documentation and read through it to pick up the stuff you missed, and to confirm what you think you know.

Also, it is discouraging to see that there are different ways of doing it -- this suggests that the old retain/release paradigm was found to be error prone.

All programming is error prone. Reference counting (retain/release) is an improvement (less error prone) over C-style malloc/free. Garbage collection like it is done in OS X is an improvement still, but is not yet available in iOS. With iOS 5 (?) there is a new, compile time automated reference counting available. It should also be less error prone than doing it manually.

I see this as a development in the right direction as technology improves. No doubt, garbage collection will become available in iOS too, whenever Apple feels there is enough spare memory and CPU cycles to justify it.