Comment by lukeck | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lukeck | Hacker News Reader

1. It depends what platform you want to target with your MVP, and whether you have any coding experience. Generally, web technologies have a somewhat gentler learning curve than iOS/Android, and can still reach mobiles. If you're starting from scratch, learn HTML and CSS and make some simple static pages. Then once you're comfortable, learn a high level language (eg. Ruby or Python). Then learn a web framework for that language (Rails if you're focusing on Ruby, Django if Python). You'll probably want to pick up some Javascript too.

2. Macs are popular for iOS, Android and web development so they're a good choice.

3. It's possible but it will be a lot of work. I don't have any recommendations on beginner courses. Maybe check out reddit.com/r/learnprogramming

4. As you implement your MVP, try to break each problem you face into smaller, manageable chunks. It's much easier to solve several easy - medium difficulty problems than 1-2 hard ones.

> Generally, web technologies have a somewhat gentler learning curve than iOS/Android

I have not enough experience with iOS/Android development to know, but I wonder if it isn't somewhat more easier to learn iOS for instance since it's just one language and IDE you have to focus on, while for web-dev you need to learn multiple languages. (Though at a certain point you'll need a server-side language to give your app the ability to communicate with a server...)

> If you're starting from scratch, learn HTML and CSS and make some simple static pages. Then once you're comfortable, learn a high level language (eg. Ruby or Python). Then learn a web framework for that language (Rails if you're focusing on Ruby, Django if Python). You'll probably want to pick up some Javascript too.

Exactly what I was thinking, but you gave actually steps.

iOS (and I'd assume Android as well) is a grab bag of technology. To learn it correctly, you'd need to learn about memory management, enough graphics to understand how to draw to the screen, interpret touches, etc. All of that is wrapped up in a complex API.

Web development has many layers to it, but each layer is pretty straightforward and it all starts and ends with producing a text string (the web page) which is a much easier concept to get your head around when you're first learning.

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