IT'S TIME TO GET STARTED!
I got the idea to learn app development from my sister Brooke (a former gifted student), and we talked for hours about potential ideas and things that people have done in the past like building drones, knitting, creating new species of plants, etc. Eventually I settled on the idea of app development because it is something that I've wanted to do for years, but I've never had the motivation or the time to really invest myself in the process of learning how to do it.
So I started this whole process by doing some research and I realized that to program for iOS, you need to use a program called XCode. The problem with that is that XCode is only available on Macintosh, and I have a PC... So instead of paying over $1000 to buy a new Mac, I found a workaround: I installed a virtual Mac on my PC. This is basically a Mac emulator that runs full Macintosh, so I can have the full Mac experience, including XCode.
After getting everything installed, which took far longer than I had anticipated (over 4 hours for everything to download and install), I started looking at XCode, and that's when I started realizing how complicated this is going to be. The program opened up with tons of different tabs and areas to code, and it was a little overwhelming.
So I decided to watch some online tutorials on YouTube (this is what I used) to learn the basics, and how to use the program in general. Following the tutorial, I created an extremely basic app that only said "Hello World", which is unimpressive but it's a start. However, by making it, I have learned the basics of creating new apps and using developer features on my iPhone, so it's a start.
Plan for the upcoming 6 weeks:
Week 1: Learning the basic ins and outs of XCode
Week 2: Understanding the Swift Programming Language
Week 3: Build a simple app that incorporates most (if not all) of the knowledge I learned
Week 4-5: Learn more complicated practices for XCode and Swift
Week 5-6: Using the more complex knowledge along with the basics to develop an app that will be useful to me on a daily basis.
Clearly this is a very broad timeline, but that is on purpose. I want to be free to learn as much as I can without restrictions, because I honestly have no clue what kinds of new information I could come across, and I don't know what is easy or hard to do in XCode or Swift. This is why I don't really know what I will be able to learn, and also why I haven't set a goal to make a specific type of app yet. I just don't know what I'll learn to do in these 6 weeks.
Plan for the upcoming 6 weeks:
Week 1: Learning the basic ins and outs of XCode
Week 2: Understanding the Swift Programming Language
Week 3: Build a simple app that incorporates most (if not all) of the knowledge I learned
Week 4-5: Learn more complicated practices for XCode and Swift
Week 5-6: Using the more complex knowledge along with the basics to develop an app that will be useful to me on a daily basis.
Clearly this is a very broad timeline, but that is on purpose. I want to be free to learn as much as I can without restrictions, because I honestly have no clue what kinds of new information I could come across, and I don't know what is easy or hard to do in XCode or Swift. This is why I don't really know what I will be able to learn, and also why I haven't set a goal to make a specific type of app yet. I just don't know what I'll learn to do in these 6 weeks.
Much of what you are trying to do will work. Mind that, your project will probably goby flawlessly. The only thing I am not sure of is whether or not you can get your app onto the app store. There may still be a large premium on the apple app store for actually having an app on the market. The same goes for the Windows 8 and 10 stores. Android is the only confirmed free one. If you want to move there, I will have no problems beta testing for you.
ReplyDeleteCurrently it costs $99 to get a license to put apps on the app store, so I'm just going to skip over that, and directly download my apps on my phone. As for moving to Andriod, I probably won't attempt to make the switch any time soon, because I have an iPhone, and nothing Android, and I'd rather make apps that I can use.
DeleteDo you have any ideas on the type of app that you want to create/will be able to create? Also, what experience do you have with coding, whether it's coding apps or not?
ReplyDeleteI currently have basically no idea of what app I will create because I don't know how much I will be able to learn to do in the 6 week time-span, but the one requirement I want to make is that whatever I make should be something that I will be able to use daily.
DeleteFor programming experience, I know a bit of HTML, C++, a little CSS and Basic, but not much else. Hopefully knowing these languages will make the transition easier to Swift because I'm used to the general concept of programming, but so far I have not looked at Swift, so I don't really know how easy or hard that'll be.
I'm really excited to see what kind of project you create. I have personally used XCode before, and much like other Apple programs (as much as I hate to admit it), it is a very efficient and streamlined program. The Swift language is also very easy to code in. For example, unlike C++ or HTML, you don;t have to put a ; every time you want to end a line. I won't be much help to you in actually making the project, but I do hope that you are successful in making an awesome, unique app!
ReplyDelete