Ideally, I'd like to see a nice book "writing OS X code for dummies."
Why would you want that? There are so many programming language available for Mac, that such a book would be useless. Perhaps "Objective-C Programming" would be more appropriate. And there are some good books on that, even for newbies. I rather like "Beginning Mac OS X Programming", by Michael Trent and Drew McConmack, published by Wrox.
But have a look on Amazon for more book titles.
The hardest part of program development is not the coding, but coming up with a good idea for an application and asking for user input as early on in your project as possible. In a way, software developers are inventors, thinking thoughts noway had before, finding solutions for problems people encounter in their daily lives.
The next hardest part is sticking to your idea and giving support for your product. That and marketing your software, building a good reputation.
Only then comes the coding part as being the hardest thing to do IMHO.
So, I guess you should first come up with a good idea, so you're motivated enough to endure the hardships of learning a programming language (probably several languages) and what else is needed to realize your idea.
This probably also means that not everyone is cut out to be a good software developer, at least, not an alround software developer.
4 - Join a forum/user group and participate in it.
5 - Learn how to find the information you need.
6 - When stuck, walk away and do something else to "clear" your head.
7 - Do not study for more that about 2 hours in a row (information overload).
8 - Have fun.
Books:
1 - The Object-Oriented thought process, by Matt Weisfeld. Java is the language used in this book, but the concepts are the same.
2 - Programming in Objective-C, by Stephen Kochan. You will not be creating any GUI based applications with this book so you can use either the terminal (i.e. vi editor) or Xcode. He even shows you how to compile the applications in a Windows environment.
3 - Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, by Aaron Hillegass. You will create GUI based applications using this book.
"Starter" Applications
1: Calculator
v1.0 - Simple add/subtract/mulitply/divide/total
v2.0 - Create "memories" that can be included in other calculations
2: Word processor (i.e TextEdit on steroids)
v1.0 - Create new file, open and edit existing file
Thanks to all for the info. I found the developer web page from Apple's site which provides ton's of information. The advise to spend only two hours at a time is spot on, I've done exactely that today after spending a couple hours on the developer web site. I have ideas of what I'd like to accomplish. so this is the next step.
Comments
Originally posted by Rick12322
Hey all you progam developers,
You assume too much; I'm no program developer.
Originally posted by Rick12322
Ideally, I'd like to see a nice book "writing OS X code for dummies."
Why would you want that? There are so many programming language available for Mac, that such a book would be useless. Perhaps "Objective-C Programming" would be more appropriate. And there are some good books on that, even for newbies. I rather like "Beginning Mac OS X Programming", by Michael Trent and Drew McConmack, published by Wrox.
But have a look on Amazon for more book titles.
The hardest part of program development is not the coding, but coming up with a good idea for an application and asking for user input as early on in your project as possible. In a way, software developers are inventors, thinking thoughts noway had before, finding solutions for problems people encounter in their daily lives.
The next hardest part is sticking to your idea and giving support for your product. That and marketing your software, building a good reputation.
Only then comes the coding part as being the hardest thing to do IMHO.
So, I guess you should first come up with a good idea, so you're motivated enough to endure the hardships of learning a programming language (probably several languages) and what else is needed to realize your idea.
This probably also means that not everyone is cut out to be a good software developer, at least, not an alround software developer.
1 - Think of a program you want or need.
2 - Make sure you can verify the results.
3 - Start small.
4 - Join a forum/user group and participate in it.
5 - Learn how to find the information you need.
6 - When stuck, walk away and do something else to "clear" your head.
7 - Do not study for more that about 2 hours in a row (information overload).
8 - Have fun.
Books:
1 - The Object-Oriented thought process, by Matt Weisfeld. Java is the language used in this book, but the concepts are the same.
2 - Programming in Objective-C, by Stephen Kochan. You will not be creating any GUI based applications with this book so you can use either the terminal (i.e. vi editor) or Xcode. He even shows you how to compile the applications in a Windows environment.
3 - Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X, by Aaron Hillegass. You will create GUI based applications using this book.
"Starter" Applications
1: Calculator
v1.0 - Simple add/subtract/mulitply/divide/total
v2.0 - Create "memories" that can be included in other calculations
2: Word processor (i.e TextEdit on steroids)
v1.0 - Create new file, open and edit existing file
v2.0 - Change font type and size.
v3.0 - Word, character, line count.
v4.0 - Drag and drop
Rick