View Full Version : iPad programming 101?
Where can I get some good guidance on building an iPad app? Basically I'd like to build an app that's good for iPhone and iPads but don't really know where to start. I'm a member of ADC, though just the free level right now. I'm a member of a non-profit group that'd like to have an iPhone/iPad app and I'd like the challenge. Is there any free/low cost good support out there for people like me who have a basic understanding of code and want to do something like this?
Stackoverflow.com is a decent resource for particular questions, with well-known Mac and iOS developers (including some Apple employees) regularly answering.
As for getting started, you'll want to have some basic knowledge of C (pointer arithmetic not really required) and Objective-C.
There's numerous Cocoa blogs out there; much of what applies to Mac dev does to iOS dev as well.
And if you like learning by the book, get one of those.
Also, FWIW, 1) it goes without saying I'll be happy to help as well, and 2) I just started another iOS app project yesterday, and may actually be able to ship this one :p. I did ship some Mac stuff way back, though, so I do have basic Cocoa experience already.
warehouse13
2010-10-11, 03:19
Where can I get some good guidance on building an iPad app? Basically I'd like to build an app that's good for iPhone and iPads but don't really know where to start. I'm a member of ADC, though just the free level right now. I'm a member of a non-profit group that'd like to have an iPhone/iPad app and I'd like the challenge. Is there any free/low cost good support out there for people like me who have a basic understanding of code and want to do something like this?
I think that challenges are good, but unless you're thinking of a really simple app, without programming knowledge your challenge will be far too complicated.
I say this because i'm a IT consultant and also programmer.
What chucker said.
And also, the information Apple provide (along with fully functioning source packages with app concept examples) in the iOS Dev. Center are a great source of info.
What kind of app are you thinking of?
It may be worth looking at something like three20 as a base for a more traditional app. With a little bit of reading you can build some quite nice app UIs which are fully functioning, and barely have to actually touch a lot of the more esoteric iOS API calls.
For a game there is always Unity....
Well, to be specific I'm looking to make an app for my church. We are online heavily and stream services etc. So we've been talking about getting an app done up at taps in to these resources.
I don't want to just do a web version of these resources either. My church uses a canned web site that runs on ASP and we are limited in what we do.
So for now it's just a project that i really want to do. I'm not going to have any real support of it from my church because they dont have staff to do programming. Most of the tech stuff is voluntary. So we want an app and I'm volunteering to do so.
I do have some programming behind me, but let's just say it's very weak.
three20 is worth a look in your case I think.
I was able to get a lot of nice things like photo galleries and such working very very quickly, and looking very nice with very little effort. Considering that my main interest on the iPhone is getting OpenGL up and running as fast as possible for games (and then doing all the UI stuff myself) I have not learned as much as I would like about more traditional application programming for the iPhone, using Apple's UI.
So it served a purpose for me and handled all the UITable stuff I found too tiring to read about! :) :p
I hacked around with it and got it to do what I wanted, and only really appreciated how much it could have done for me once I had butchered it in my own pig headed way to do my stuff. But by then I was too far into the project to back step.
The impression I got was that if you followed it's model of hierarchical navigation then you could make quite complex apps with very little effort, or knowledge of what goes on under the hood in iOS. It links parts of the app together using a URL like scheme, which suits the workflow of most utility apps.
There are of course fully functioning apps provided with the three20 package, that you can install on your device or the simulator, and then hack about in to make your own app.
You do end up with iPhone apps, which look like professional apps, and you do work with it as a library in Xcode and the end product is yours. And you do have to do some coding. But the nuts and bolts of getting something up and running with buttons to click etc. is all there for you.
Hope that helps....
I never posted back, but I'm starting to play with three20 and it looks like something I'll be able to use. :) Thank you very much! I've sadly had to back burner the project because my school has really ramped up here lately and with my job and family, this project doesn't rank.
Didn't want to create my own iPad Apps for Noobs thread so though I'd post here. Can anyone tell me if the app shown here (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-edge-of-light/id388227659?mt=8) is one that would require real programming skills? It basically looks like a web site within an app, but having no idea how this stuff works I wasn't sure. I want to create an app-book with simple functionality like this, where clicking on a topic takes you to a "page" that has a PDF-like layout with photos and text, maybe even embedded video, and nothing more really.
Is that possible without real programming skills? Is there any type of "template" setup you can use to create stuff like this without C coding? I know 0 C coding. All I know is some HTML, CSS, etc.
It looks like something you could make with something like AppMakr (http://appmakr.com/).
So the short answer to your question is no, not really. Not a huge amount of coding going on there! :)
It looks like something you could make with something like AppMakr (http://appmakr.com/).
So the short answer to your question is no, not really. Not a huge amount of coding going on there! :)
Thanks. I am checking out that Appmkr service. Seems like I might be able to pull it off without coding? Not real sure about their TOS though, talking about I agree to "share the content" even though I keep the copyright. That sounds suspect. I pinged them. We'll see what they say. Anyone had good luck with any "app generation" services for web-like content?
Anyone ever used this service / app? Seems pretty powerful but not sure if it's a true "no C coding required" type thing. Kind of sounds like it is though.
http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-cross-platform-application-development/
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