Hello All - Some advice for a noob please

[Lairy_Barsteward]

Hello All,

My name's Sean and I'm an alcoholic... well... not yet I'm not but the more I read and re-read Steve Kochan's Objective-C book... the more I'm being driven to drink!

Anyway - the main reason why I'm posting is to possibly seek some advice from you all... Whilst I've been in IT for years, I'm new to development and especially new to Objective-C. I have a couple of questions which I would be grateful to receive some feedback on so I've listed them below.

Oh - just to make you aware of what I've tried thus far (and seem to be failing at)... I've got my Mac Book Pro, I've signed up as a developer on the apple program and I've acquired several books... Stephen Kochan's 'Programming in Objective-C' (3rd edition), an Xcode Developer reference book and a "How to build an iPhone app in 24 hours" by some chap who's name evades me at the moment...

Whilst the books are ok, I updated my iOS SDK to the latest and the books all refer to version 3 as opposed to the latest version which I'm running... so a lot of the information in them appears to be obsolete or non-existent (Like ARC or memory management etc). Oh I also have a few videos from Simon Allardice (via Lynda.com) but again... are out of date...

So here are my questions nonetheless...

Being a 'noob' to development... do you have any recommendations as to which path I should take to enable me to up skill myself? If so... what do you think?

I'm going to pay to go in to a classroom environment to aid with my learning of all things Xcode... does anyone have any good advice as to which courses I should take? I'm currently based in Brisbane but assume I'd need to go to Sydney / Melbourne etc

Is there a Skype / MSN community which I could join so that should I have any pressing questions that I could maybe ask and receive a fairly quick response to?

... and last but I'm sure by no means least...

Is there anyone out there that would be willing to maybe spend some time with me to maybe act as a mentor for my progress?

Appreciate the last one may be a 'fat chance' type question but if you don't ask you don't get :-)

I have some great ideas which I would love to put in to production so I'm keen as mustard to learn / do whatever it is I need to so that I can progress...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Sean

[iusethisapp]

Honestly, use this forum as a stepping stone. Read, Read and Read then Apply, Apply and Apply. Trial and Error = Success.

[lgehrig1]

Originally Posted by Lairy_Barsteward

Is there a Skype / MSN community which I could join so that should I have any pressing questions that I could maybe ask and receive a fairly quick response to?

This forum is a very good resource. This and StackOverflow - if your Google-fu is any good the answer to an iOS / Objective-C question usually ends up being on either or both of these boards!

Regarding the iOS 3 vs iOS 5 - I so would not sweat it. Your first program is going to be some variant of "Hello World" - you are so not going to be using bleeding edge 5.0 tech

Regarding recommendations on development (I'm assuming process) - never underestimate the power of a legal sized (or local equivalent) pad of paper and pencil. I keep several next to the Mac while coding - great for solving quick math questions, writing down details about that bug you just noticed, jotting an idea, and doodling your program's architecture.

Good luck and welcome aboard!

[Desert Diva]

Sean
I would recommend that you take a look at Corona: The fastest and easiest way to create cross-platform mobile apps
I use Corona for building apps and am never going back to Ob-C again, it did my head in, seriously.
I learnt, without ANY experience how to make apps, upload easily and with total support from Ansca, writing in lua code, which by the way your app will be adjustable for android or IOS.
You can download Corona for free and make apps before deciding if you want to subscribe to them. I now have loads of apps in the store (I don't know how many, but over 40).
No, I don't work for Corona, just changed my life by learning it. You will make your first app in a day.