Good places for an app n00b to learn iOS/swift dev?
December 20, 2023 2:21 PM Subscribe
Can you personally recommend an online course (or series), self-paced guides, books, etc. for someone without a coding background (have some basic HTML & CSS) to learn or teach themselves iOS app dev? (holiday snowflakes coming down inside)
I'd like to try my hand at app development by creating a simple-ish iOS app for fun. I know what I want to build as a minimal viable product: it'd be basically a home screen with buttons to facilitate an RNG array lookup and print the result. I have other features that I'd like to build out later if it goes well, so learning standard practices (i.e., ensuring proper asset handling & mapping, clean syntax and commenting, etc.) is important to me so I can iterate and maybe release future versions. I'm mostly a coding n00b—I know a little HTML & CSS, and that GitHub is a thing but not how to use it.
I started with CodeCademy because I love their platform, approach, and UI—they have some really excellent instructional design going on. Unfortunately, they got a little microaggression in their course design (okay, not entirely great ID then), so I cancelled my subscription because it's 2023 and I'm just too tired of this BS.
I downloaded Xcode and teaching myself by diving through the docs, but then noped out at the project config. (Intimidating + what is all that? How much of that do I actually need to worry about?)
So now I'm trying to figure out alternatives. Community college is not currently an option as it's cost prohibitive until I get residency, otherwise I'd be doing that. Doesn't have to be free (cap at say, $500), but if it's more than $100, I'd want it to be able to get me to a point where I have v1 completed and in the app store. Not looking to sell it, just want to get it on my own phone and maybe out in the world for free so I can point to it on my portfolio website.
I've tried MOOCs in the past and have found them hard to stick with, but maybe you did a particularly good one? I do read documentation, have an eye for detail, and am a decent troubleshooter. I have a very, very strong preference for information presented via text & images over video and/or audio (podcasts are a non-starter).
tl;dr: What iOS app dev books, MOOCs, online courses and/or platforms that are not CodeCademy have you found effective for beginners? Or some other method? Things that did NOT work for you are also welcome. Thank you!
I'd like to try my hand at app development by creating a simple-ish iOS app for fun. I know what I want to build as a minimal viable product: it'd be basically a home screen with buttons to facilitate an RNG array lookup and print the result. I have other features that I'd like to build out later if it goes well, so learning standard practices (i.e., ensuring proper asset handling & mapping, clean syntax and commenting, etc.) is important to me so I can iterate and maybe release future versions. I'm mostly a coding n00b—I know a little HTML & CSS, and that GitHub is a thing but not how to use it.
I started with CodeCademy because I love their platform, approach, and UI—they have some really excellent instructional design going on. Unfortunately, they got a little microaggression in their course design (okay, not entirely great ID then), so I cancelled my subscription because it's 2023 and I'm just too tired of this BS.
I downloaded Xcode and teaching myself by diving through the docs, but then noped out at the project config. (Intimidating + what is all that? How much of that do I actually need to worry about?)
So now I'm trying to figure out alternatives. Community college is not currently an option as it's cost prohibitive until I get residency, otherwise I'd be doing that. Doesn't have to be free (cap at say, $500), but if it's more than $100, I'd want it to be able to get me to a point where I have v1 completed and in the app store. Not looking to sell it, just want to get it on my own phone and maybe out in the world for free so I can point to it on my portfolio website.
I've tried MOOCs in the past and have found them hard to stick with, but maybe you did a particularly good one? I do read documentation, have an eye for detail, and am a decent troubleshooter. I have a very, very strong preference for information presented via text & images over video and/or audio (podcasts are a non-starter).
tl;dr: What iOS app dev books, MOOCs, online courses and/or platforms that are not CodeCademy have you found effective for beginners? Or some other method? Things that did NOT work for you are also welcome. Thank you!
This is Stanford's 'Getting started with SwiftUI' course which I found very helpful (I was new to SwiftUI but I am a software engineer and experienced programmer). In the intro he does say it's a little challenging if you don't already have some programming experience - particularly object-oriented programming, but I do think it's clear and easy to follow and he does delve into the why and not just the how, so maybe a good follow-up resource after you've started to get your feet wet with some other courses.
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:44 PM on December 20, 2023
posted by TwoWordReview at 2:44 PM on December 20, 2023
Hacking with Swift is, IMO, the gold standard for learning Swift. And it’s completely free.
Code with Chris and Sean Allen are other pretty good resources.
posted by roosterboy at 4:10 PM on December 20, 2023
Code with Chris and Sean Allen are other pretty good resources.
posted by roosterboy at 4:10 PM on December 20, 2023
You mention looking at the docs but you don't mention visiting Apple's Developer Tutorial site.
They do an absolutely superlative job of walking you through the process of developing apps -- complete with pre-created XCode projects at every step.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:31 PM on December 20, 2023
They do an absolutely superlative job of walking you through the process of developing apps -- complete with pre-created XCode projects at every step.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:31 PM on December 20, 2023
(you'll still have to learn some Swift, of course. There is no way to produce an Apple App without knowing how to program at least a bit.)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:42 PM on December 20, 2023
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:42 PM on December 20, 2023
(This is a direct pointer to an actual tutorial page so you can try it out)
Okay, I'm done now. :-)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:44 PM on December 20, 2023
Okay, I'm done now. :-)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:44 PM on December 20, 2023
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In particular, the FAQ has a bunch of links for folks getting started:
https://www.reddit.com/r/swift/comments/l0u5c3/faq_and_advice_for_beginners_please_read_before/
posted by SegFaultCoreDump at 2:25 PM on December 20, 2023 [1 favorite]