Development Prerequisites

[Lance Spence]

This book is titled iPhone and iPad Apps for Absolute Beginners (Getting Started), so what type of prerequisites does it require? How much programming knowledge is the reader required to have? Does it provide a brief introduction to objective-c? In addition does it take you from creating a typical HelloWorld app through more advanced apps touching on all the basics that are utilized by all iPhone apps?

[Nestor Mata]

From my experience I can tell you this...

First you need an Apple Mac computer
Is desired that you know an OOP language already, this would help.
Is desired that you own an iPhone/iPod Touch, is better if you use it, feel it, know it... get the experience so you can understand how it works and how an app should interact.
You can start with a free developer account, but if you want the full experience and being able to test on an iPhone/iPod Touch you will need to pay your iPhone Developer account for $99/year.

After this, is recommended to read the Human Interface Guidelines and other guidelines including memory management guidelines that you can find on the developer site from apple.

And I would say there is many of try and learn on the way to get to know the platform.

[Anil Vupputuri]

 

Nestor Mata wrote:
First you need an Apple Mac computer
Is desired that you own an iPhone/iPod Touch, is better if you use it, feel it, know it... get the experience so you can understand how it works and how an app should interact.
You can start with a free developer account, but if you want the full experience and being able to test on an iPhone/iPod Touch you will need to pay your iPhone Developer account for $99/year.

Very informative, that means it needs some $ investment before you reap the benefits. Doesn't Apple have some kind of simulator to test the programs rather testing on real device.

[Lance Spence]

I know there is an emulator, but for testing on a real device you could always buy one from ebay or craigslist I suppose.

[Alaa Nassef]

 

Anil Vupputuri wrote:
Very informative, that means it needs some $ investment before you reap the benefits. Doesn't Apple have some kind of simulator to test the programs rather testing on real device.

The SDK comes with simulators for both iPhone and iPad. However, you'll not be able to use some functionalities in the simulator (camera, location detection, compass, gyroscope, etc.)