How to Become an iPhone Developer
Posted on | July 17, 2010 | 1 Comment
Lately a lot of people have been asking me:
How did you get started doing iPhone development?
And:
What are some good iPhone dev resources to get started?
So here are the answers to those questions and other iPhone dev FAQs in a nice tidy blog post that I can point to instead of repeating myself and sending out redundant email. If you are thinking of going down the iPhone dev road and have a question I didn’t answer in this post feel free to leave it in the comments or email me: sue [at] roadschooled.com
How did you get started doing iPhone development?
It was pretty random and unplanned. My phone crapped out about a year ago so I went to the Apple store in Palo Alto and bought a new phone. After playing with it for a few hours I thought it was cool so I decided I was going to teach myself how to make iPhone apps.
What kind of coding background did you have?
Very little that was useful. I knew a little self-taught HTML and CSS from doing websites and that is about it. I knew no Objective C or Cocoa Touch.
Do you have a degree in computer science?
No. I have a BS in Chemistry with a minor in Biology. All of my computer skills are self-taught.
How did you teach yourself to code?
I used a combination of books and online resources. A few of the resources I found helpful:
Great place to start. There is a ton of info on getting started, sample code, and advanced topic info for down the road. Sign up for the developer program for free and download the SDK. If you decide you want to build and publish an app there is a $100 developer fee.
Stanford iPhone App Dev Online Course – CS 193P
Download the lectures from the class on iTunes. It helps if you know a little Obj C before watching this. Provides a good overview of iPhone dev.
Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition)
Good intro to Objective C. (3rd Edition coming out soon.) Objective C isn’t the easiest to learn if this is your first programming language like it was for me. There is a big learning curve. But if I can do it you can do it. Is it worth all the work to teach yourself to code? That is whole another post in itself.
Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK
There are some sample projects to work on to get used to Obj C and XCode. I did a couple sample projects and then just picked elements out of the book that were useful for the app I was building. There are a ton of other iPhone dev books available and I have picked through them at the bookstore while looking for elements I need to add to the app I was working on. So my advice on picking an iPhone dev book is do a couple sample projects to get comfortable. Then start building your app and pick out what you need from each book or from many of the online sources.
A good resource not only for getting started but also when you get stuck while building your apps. Good place for finding workarounds to common dev problems.
Google is your friend. There is a ton of open source code available. Once you know a little Objective C and Cocoa Touch you’ll know what keywords you need to search for to find some tasty code snippets for your app.
This isn’t specifically an iPhone dev resource but it is the best news site on hacking and entrepreneurship.
What is it like to be an indie iPhone developer?
Hmmm… It is a lot of work. And a lot of ups and downs. So pretty much I spend my day looking at this working from home or where ever:
Staring deeply into Xcode and desiring more coffee to stay awake:
And then there is the cool part where I get to test my apps out in the field at national parks:
The photos don’t really capture how much work it is for one person – more than I bargained for when I first started. Which is the perfect segue into saying I need to bring this post to an end and finish the app I’m working on. Peace out.
I have more answers if you have more questions. Leave a comment or email: sue [at] roadschooled.com
You can follow the iPhone dev part of my life on Twitter: @igreenearth
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July 20th, 2010 @ 10:28 am
Email question:
Q: Do I need a Mac to make iPhone apps?
A: Technically no. You need a computer that runs Mac OS X so using a Mac is the easiest way to go. You can turn a PC into a Hackintosh and install OS X on it but in my opinion it is not worth the work required. But if you want to give it a shot you can learn more here:
http://www.hackintosh.com/