More lessons

I was testing out a table view navigation project and it kept crashing for no apparent reason. Finally in desperation I did a clean on the project and voila, it ran fine.... xCode, no love for you tonight!

Another lesson learned...

Command-R in xCode is build and run, whereas command-R in interface builder is simulate interface! This caused me confusion because I would build and run in xCode and it would go to a black screen, yet when I did the same from interface builder, it showed my nib file, but I did not realize it was a simulation. doh!

Little Gotchas and findings so far (iPhone)

A couple notes on my findings so far with iPhone development. First off, having been away from C based languages, I forgot that system headers show up in <>'s (#Import ) and that custom classes show up in ""'s (#import "Myclass.h"). Had an issue with that for a short time. Another thing I found was that if you forget a semi-colon in xCode, it is not very good at pinpointing this so it can cause weird messages... so always do a rough check to see if you are missing them (especially if you normally code in a language that does not use them). Something that also caught me, in xCode, when you create outlets and actions that you are going to use in interface builder, you must save in xCode before popping into interface builder so that they show up. I also had a little bit of issues with creating multi-view applications, so I will post on that later when I have more to say on handling that.

Starting an application!

Having chosen an application to work on and worked through some tutorials, I have finally begun to code an app. I have also been reading: Beginning iPhone Development, which is worth the purchase. It is interesting to see how much time it takes to write a functional class in a new language versus one you are comfortable with. I would say so far it is probably a 10:1 ratio for doing iPhone code versus .net for me. Anyhow I have learned a lot thus far! One thing to note, do not turn off the save before running prompt. I was thinking about doing this and then low and behold xCode totally disappeared and crashed when I ran one build. Weird... I thought the commercials suggested that only PC's crashed?

Ready, set, ....

1. Team: 3 peeps including myself, committed and ready.

2. Get MACS: One person already had a MAC and myself and the other guy just bought refurbished MAC minis for 499, with keyboard, mouse and tax, $609 canadian, not bad.

3. 40% of the way through Apple's objective C documentation. Not too bad, once you understand the slightly obscure syntax.

Next step: Keep reading, then on May 10th, meet up with team and pick one of several ideas we have. Then we go! Nice thing is that we each had to shell up some cash which really puts the heat on us to produce something.

Progress so far

1. Team: Gonna roll with a 2-3 person team, depending on ability to get Macs for everyone... The team is picked, but will be finalized based on everyone's ability to get a Mac.

2. Get a MAC: Messed around with PearPc trying to get a virtual environment up...FAIL. Kijiji and Ebay, sometimes a bit dodgy.....Down to 2 options: One buy a mac mini, $729 bones. Reliable option, just a bit expensive. Door #2: A guy I know has a consulting firm and they have Mac clients. One client is replacing their Macs and the old ones have Tiger on them. At most will be $300. Lets assume I can get one of the intel based ones for $250, and then Leopard costs $129, so I might be able to get one there for about $400, which is basically half the price of the mini.

3. Read documentation: Currently on page 78 of 164 of the iPhone application programming guide.

iPhone Dev

Alright, decided to make the plunge into iPhone development.. Looks interesting and fun and it should be a great learning opportunity as I think I've touched a Mac a handful of times. I will document my progress from zero to hero and hopefully provide insight on a good road map on how to produce an iPhone app. Here is what I have done so far:

1. Assemble a team (always easier and more creative with more people).
2. Get my hands on a Mac to develop with... and maybe one day an iPhone.
3. Read Apples dev documentation.