{"id":21,"date":"2011-10-26T09:12:56","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T16:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.groknik.com\/?p=21"},"modified":"2011-10-26T09:12:56","modified_gmt":"2011-10-26T16:12:56","slug":"learning-to-program-ios-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.groknik.com\/?p=21","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Program: iOS Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been a casual programmer for years<\/em>. Not an experienced or even a good<\/em> programmer, mind you, but I’ve dabbled in the art since I un-boxed my Commodore VIC-20 as a wide-eyed kid way back in 1981. That led to the Commodore 64, then the Commodore 128, and then my infatuation with the Commodore Amiga. I eventually (and somewhat reluctantly) gave up on Commodore in the early 1990s, and have lived in the world of Microsoft and Windows since then.<\/p>\n

\"Commodore<\/a>

My first computer, the Commodore VIC-20. (Image from Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

My programming exploits started with VIC-Basic and Commodore Basic, and learned small amounts of Pascal, Fortran, and Assembly in an “Introduction to Computer Programming” class in high school. I remember sitting in front of my Commodore 64 for hours typing in programs from COMPUTE!’s Gazette\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>magazine, then spending just as many hours debugging what I entered to actually get the blasted thing to run.<\/p>\n

I’ve done a tiny bit of programming and scripting here and there, but I consider myself an absolute novice when it comes to today’s modern programming languages, including Java, C, \u00c2\u00a0Objective-C, C++, C#, PERL, and many others. I’ve always wanted to reenter the world of programming, at least in a don’t-quit-your-day-job<\/em> sort of way. After owning and using the iPhone 3GS (and now an iPhone 4S), I’ve decided that the time is ripe for me to roll up my sleeves and learn how to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad.<\/p>\n

I’ve also decided to keep an ongoing series of blog posts about my progress. If you’re also a beginning iOS programming, I’d love to hear your comments and feedback on what I’m up to. If you’re an iOS veteran, I’d be more than open to any advice and feedback you can send my way, so feel free to add a comment or two to this blog post. Wish me luck!<\/p>\n

Next Post: <\/strong>Choosing a Mac for iOS development<\/p>\n