from Hacker News

Ask HN: Self Taught iOS developers

by boca on 10/9/14, 2:43 PM with 20 comments

If you are a self taught iOS developer who knew little to no programming before starting with iOS and now have app(s) in the appstore or work/freelance as a iOS developer, I would love to hear from you on the following:

- Were there any specific online courses/videos that you think were a key in your success and you will highly recommend to others?

- Books that you will highly recommend?

- How did you get your first gig or idea for an app?

- What were your biggest challenges - too much knowledge out there, not able to devote much time because of other things, lack of motivation at times etc.?

  • by ceeK on 10/9/14, 8:05 PM

    Learned using Stanford course - this is pretty standard.

    Bought a book for Cocoa programming to learn Obj-C. Alright, but not a deal breaker.

    First gig I offered for $200 flat rate to get the portfolio rolling, through a HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6382405

    First app idea was actually a game, I learned what was necessary to build it (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/firework-flare/id513766705?m...).

    Biggest challenge: going from basic programming knowledge to having to use design patterns, strange (at the time) syntax.

  • by chrisBob on 10/10/14, 1:36 PM

    I started mostly with "Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X". I wanted to learn objective-C, but I hadn't convinced myself that an iPad was worth the investment yet. From there I worked on my first iOS game with a combination of Stack Overflow and Apple references.

    My first big project was "Ocean Commotion"[1] and the motivation was that I didn't see many good multi touch games in the app store. It still disappoints me how most iOS games would be better suited to play with a mouse or keyboard when there is this amazing interface available. Did you know an iPad can handle 11 touch points at once, and an iPhone can handle 5?

    My game started out as two orange rectangles that I could drag around on a blue background. Once you realize that views all get their own inputs then having 5 objects all respond to touch events at the same time is pretty straightforward.

    For your first app I recommend starting with something simple. One recent game I made was "Jack Slap"[2]. It is a simple reaction time game, and would make a decent introduction into working with Xcode. Don't worry about the details up front. Just think of a concept or single feature you like and start doodling in code to get a feel for things.

    My biggest challenge is probably my artistic ability. You can tell that I got an artist involved for Ocean Commotion, but not for anything else. Making an app look good is an important part of the process. Fortunately there are lots of artists out there who can't code to help you out!

    [1] http://oceancmotion.com

    [2]https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jack-slap/id846622220?mt=8 (iTunes link)

  • by joshdance on 10/10/14, 3:52 PM

    I did the Stanford iOS course and the Big Nerd ranch books for 2 months, before I got hired at a startup doing iOS. Biggest challenge was getting stuck and not having someone in person to show me the way.

  • by kthr on 10/10/14, 11:57 AM

    Self taught with the Stanford Course during my first and second year at university before I ended up at an agency where I had developers guiding me with patterns, syntax and other programming fundamentals.

    I've now graduated with a first and work as a full time developer at a startup.

    My one piece of advice would be to set yourself an idea and try to build it. Build, try and don't be afraid of exceptions. They're there to help you.

    My portfolio - http://kathuria.me

  • by rrrrrraul on 10/10/14, 5:08 PM

    I used pretty much all the resources already mentioned (Big Nerd Ranch, Raywenderlich, Stanford course), but I'd like to add a few more to the mix - check out http://objc.io , http://nshipster.com and http://nsscreencast.com

    Note - I have no affiliation to any of the links above, I just think they're good resources. Good luck!

  • by alekh2014 on 10/9/14, 6:04 PM

    -I would anyday recommend Raywenderwich tutorial. They are just awesome and so easy to follow.

    -http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-Edition-Develo...

    -Just a problem which I tried to solve. Was searcing for one but didnt found any good solution.

    - Lack of research, just creating app is not enough, you have to market your app. Also, Lack of time was my another problem

  • by coralreef on 10/9/14, 4:45 PM

    - Stanford iTunes course, anything on Raywenderlich.com

    - Built my first app based on what I knew from tutorials

    - Biggest challenge: programming is hard