[jmiles540]

So I have downloaded the latest iPhone SDK (2.2.1) and tried watching some tutorial vids. The thing is all of the tutorial vids start with different iPhone templates than I have., They have templates like Cocoa touch, and I have templates like "Navigation based application".

I'm a C# ASP.NET developer, and never used a mac before last week. SO coding concepts are familiar to me, but I might need to be walked through the basics of using the OS.

Thanks in Advance,
Jmiles

[MarkHernandez]

Hey man, welcome to the forum.

I can understand exactly where you are coming from. And you are going to want to find and follow the quickest path-of-least-resistance in getting you up to speed in iPhone development. I've got a good answer for you...

You are in luck because you are starting at this point in time when there are tons of resources available to you. There are some fantastic ones like some great books and some excellent videos. And there are sucky ones too, for example, Stanford's video course on iTunes is poorly taught and wouldn't be appropriate for you, and there are a couple of books that were hastily assembled to get them to press and they're more reference books than learning tools.

On top of that, it's really easy to just dive in and inadvertently pick a path that you won't realize is out of sequence and with big missing spots which will waste a lot of time and possibly make you throw in the towel. Don't want that!

When I started, there was pretty much just Apple's formal documentation which, of course, has no choice but to discuss and document everything, and when you're reading it you have no idea whether you even need to know the information or not. I had a rough time putting it all together.

Well, after all is said and done, and long story short, I highly recommend you do the following...

Open up and print out the following Apple document and do it. It will take you an hour or so.

Your First iPhone Application

After that, go to Borders, Barnes & Noble or Amazon and get a copy of Beginning iPhone Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche, and just do it from cover to cover. These guys did a brilliant job. Not only do they gently introduce you to the basics of Xcode, the Cocoa Touch frameworks and the iPhone OS, but they give you an immediate sense of accomplishment all along the way and teach you just what you need to know at just the right time so you get introduced to EVERYTHING you'll need to know to do what you wanna do.

I have seven iPhone programming books sitting next to me and nine other related books, an a rack full of Apple documentation. Take it from me, this IS the path of least resistance and it's the most satisfying and fun.

It will take you a week+ to go through the book, but do ALL of it from beginning to end. Don't skip, because imbedded along the way are important introductions to, and mentions of important things you need to know.

I hope this helps. Go for it! It's so much fun.

Mark



P.S. This page is a great "root of the tree" to find your way forward...

Getting Started with iPhone OS

[MarkHernandez]

Oh, and one more thing for anyone using a book to learn... Even though the source code to the samples is available, be sure to type everything from the book in by hand because it's important to get that "sense memory" and experience so that your learning goes deeper. Don't take any shortcuts.

So many of the questions here in this forum and elsewhere are from people who are not coding correctly and are thinking C rather than Objective-C and don't play the model-view-controller game the way it should be played. It's a choice between harmonizing with the system or going against the grain. Your choice.

Also, when working with any book, be sure to go to the website and find the errata and mark up the book with the corrections before you even get started. That will save you lots of time and frustration too.

Mark

[brimes]

Great thread and ideas - thanks Mark!

[frodeaux]

I am in the same position as Mark seems to have been.. The stanford classes are horrible, and frustrating. There are tons of sites out there, but most of them can be used as references at most. The book Mark mentions seems to be well written and easily understandable. I happened to stumble upon it before reading this post. You can check out a great preview on google books. The first 7 - 8 chapters are available to read !

check it out:

Beginning Iphone Development ... - Google Book Search