Teaching yourself Cocoa from the ground up?
-
I'm a high school student trying to learn the basics of Cocoa (enough to
build simple apps.) from doing simple step-by-step tutorials. I have one
problem, I'm a complete beginner to programming (I know absolutely
nothing) so I need a simple step-by-step tutorial, but I'm running out
of ones I've found.
I've done Apple's GraphicConverter, a simple text editor, and
CocoaDevCentral's "Two Line's of Code" "HelloWorld" application. I'm
itching to try something more functional (like a simple calendar, etc.),
but I can't find an uncomplicated, easy to understand, step-by-step
tutorial for a complete programming newbie.
I've been told that there aren't many step-by-step tutorials and to just
play around with Cocoa since it's easy, and to develop simple apps. It
is very easy to just play with building an interface in IB, but I get
confused when it comes to all the classes, and especially any required
extra code when I get back to PB.
Does anyone have any advice on what to play with in Cocoa that's easy?
Or any tutorials/samples on the web to try? Or what types of simple apps
to try to build?
Does anyone know of any good step-by-step tutorials that would meet my
skill level (or non-skill level - I can copy from good directions), or
any other ideas about how I can try to quickly learn some of Cocoa?
Basically, any advice on teaching myself enough of Cocoa to build simple
apps. (like a Calendar, etc.) with positively no previous programming
experience?
Any help or incite would be appreciated!
Thanks!
-Jeff
________________________________________________________
Jeff A. Waddell <Jeffwaddell...>
www.themaclist.com Home of The Mac List!
www.jeffawaddell.com AIM: Jaw3000
PGP: pgp.jeffawaddell.com XNS: =Jeff Waddell
- Here's to the crazy ones; The ones who see things differently.
Think different.
________________________________________________________ -
On Friday, October 12, 2001, at 09:28 , Jeff Waddell wrote:> I've done Apple's GraphicConverter, a simple text editor, and
> CocoaDevCentral's "Two Line's of Code" "HelloWorld" application. I'm
> itching to try something more functional (like a simple calendar,
> etc.), but I can't find an uncomplicated, easy to understand,
> step-by-step tutorial for a complete programming newbie.
I get the impression that some of the old-timers don't like its
approach, but Vermont Recipes
<http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes/index.html> is at least
a bit more involved than Apple's tutorial.
David Dunham A Sharp <david...>
Voice/Fax: 206 783 7404 http://a-sharp.com
Efficiency is intelligent laziness. -
On Friday, October 12, 2001, at 09:28 PM, Jeff Waddell wrote:> I'm a high school student trying to learn the basics of Cocoa (enough
> to build simple apps.) from doing simple step-by-step tutorials. I have
> one problem, I'm a complete beginner to programming (I know absolutely
> nothing) so I need a simple step-by-step tutorial, but I'm running out
> of ones I've found.
>
> Does anyone know of any good step-by-step tutorials that would meet my
> skill level (or non-skill level - I can copy from good directions), or
> any other ideas about how I can try to quickly learn some of Cocoa?
>
Check out cocoadevcentral.com for some tutorials in addition to Vermont
Recipes suggestion.
Since you say you're a total newbie programmer, I'd also suggest that
you learn C first. You're going to need to know how to do loops,
pointers, structs, etc. You should also looking into some info on
Object Oriented Design and programming. That way you start to
understand how and why things work and not just parrot the tutorials.
Brad
<bmiller...>
_________________________________________________________________
The trouble with the world is that
the stupid are cocksure and the
intelligent are full of doubt.
- Bertrand Russell -
On Saturday, October 13, 2001, at 01:16 AM, David Dunham wrote:> On Friday, October 12, 2001, at 09:28 , Jeff Waddell wrote:
>
>> I've done Apple's GraphicConverter, a simple text editor, and
>> CocoaDevCentral's "Two Line's of Code" "HelloWorld" application. I'm
>> itching to try something more functional (like a simple calendar,
>> etc.), but I can't find an uncomplicated, easy to understand,
>> step-by-step tutorial for a complete programming newbie.
>
> I get the impression that some of the old-timers don't like its
> approach, but Vermont Recipes
> <http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes/index.html> is at
> least a bit more involved than Apple's tutorial.
>
I'm not sure which old-timers that is.. but I can say that it is
reviewed by old-timers for Bill, and after the first couple of articles
where there was more 'conventions' that we were trying to get him to
adopt.. there have been very little in the way of changes.
Bill's certainly got the support of the Stepwise editors (for what
that's worth to anyone) -
Good for you. Your are starting a long journey that will be full of
creativity, inspiration, and possibly money :)
You should try to take a programming course at a local community college.
The language that you learn does not really matter because you will want to
learn many over the years, but C or Java are a good start. I personal
opinion is that you should not start with C++; it is bad enough for
professional programmers.
If you can't take a course or don't want to do that, buy yourself an
introductory book about C or Java. You can get "Teach Yourself" books.
Almost any book from O'Rieley will be good.
Spend a lot of time trying your ideas and experimenting. One day everything
will be second nature to you and you will be advising someone else about
getting started. -
My recommendation would be this: Go to <www.javasoft.com>. They have an
excellent tutorial on Java. It will teach the basic programming
concepts, including object-oriented, and the Java language, which is one
of the best (maybe *the* best).
After you've done that, read Apple's little diddy about Objective-C,
then read Vermont Recipes.
On Friday, October 12, 2001, at 09:28 PM, Jeff Waddell wrote:> I'm a high school student trying to learn the basics of Cocoa (enough--
> to build simple apps.) from doing simple step-by-step tutorials. I have
> one problem, I'm a complete beginner to programming (I know absolutely
> nothing) so I need a simple step-by-step tutorial, but I'm running out
> of ones I've found.
>
> I've done Apple's GraphicConverter, a simple text editor, and
> CocoaDevCentral's "Two Line's of Code" "HelloWorld" application. I'm
> itching to try something more functional (like a simple calendar,
> etc.), but I can't find an uncomplicated, easy to understand,
> step-by-step tutorial for a complete programming newbie.
>
> I've been told that there aren't many step-by-step tutorials and to
> just play around with Cocoa since it's easy, and to develop simple
> apps. It is very easy to just play with building an interface in IB,
> but I get confused when it comes to all the classes, and especially any
> required extra code when I get back to PB.
>
> Does anyone have any advice on what to play with in Cocoa that's easy?
> Or any tutorials/samples on the web to try? Or what types of simple
> apps to try to build?
>
> Does anyone know of any good step-by-step tutorials that would meet my
> skill level (or non-skill level - I can copy from good directions), or
> any other ideas about how I can try to quickly learn some of Cocoa?
>
> Basically, any advice on teaching myself enough of Cocoa to build
> simple apps. (like a Calendar, etc.) with positively no previous
> programming experience?
>
> Any help or incite would be appreciated!
>
> Thanks!
> -Jeff
> ________________________________________________________
> Jeff A. Waddell <Jeffwaddell...>
> www.themaclist.com Home of The Mac List!
> www.jeffawaddell.com AIM: Jaw3000
> PGP: pgp.jeffawaddell.com XNS: =Jeff Waddell
>
> - Here's to the crazy ones; The ones who see things differently.
> Think different.
> ________________________________________________________
>
> _______________________________________________
> MacOSX-dev mailing list
> <MacOSX-dev...>
> http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-dev
>
>
David McCabe
http://homepage.mac.com/davidmccabe/
'finger <david...>' for PGP key.
No PGP sig because it's broken. Will fix soon.
Wrfhf ybirf lbh! -
Jeff Waddell wrote:>
> I'm a high school student trying to learn the basics of Cocoa (enough to
> build simple apps.) from doing simple step-by-step tutorials. I have one
> problem, I'm a complete beginner to programming (I know absolutely
> nothing) so I need a simple step-by-step tutorial, but I'm running out
> of ones I've found.
I know that many people are not fond of O'Reilly's Learning Cocoa book,
but I found it to be a useful introduction to writing more complete
applications. It repackages some material that's available for free from
Apple, but it's convenient to have that in book form at your side while
you're working through the tutorials.
There are typos here and there that are easy to spot if you have other
programming experience but could be frustrating for a total beginner.
Maybe someone is aware of errata posted somewhere?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Alec Bartsch / Walt Disney Feature Animation: The Secret Lab / x3227
