Learn iOS development by building apps | Hacker News Reader

Learn iOS development by building apps

iosacademy.io

25 pointsjohnfig23 comments

There is so much misinformation here. I hate to rag on a Show HN, but stuff like this

  > Setup your computer to code like a pro. The freshest 
  > developers have the best configured computers

just rubs me the wrong way. Being a computer scientist or programmer isn't "fresh." It's a time-consuming intellectual pursuit that involves complex mathematics and problem-solving abilities. It involves finding elegant solutions to difficult problems by applying proofs, theorems, and algorithms to stupid quirks that arise from the stupidly flawed design of computers and software.

It is NOT, and has NEVER been about cash-grabs or money-making. Let me reiterate this one more time:

0. You don't need a good computer to be a good programmer, just a good mind

1. You don't need Git to be a good programmer, just a good mind

2. You don't need Agile, Team-driven or other corporate development BS to be a good programmer, just a good mind

3. You don't need to use object-oriented programming to be a good programmer, just a good mind (I prefer functional paradigms, but that's just me)

4. You don't need to make your program look like other programs, just a good mind (and a good sense of UI design knowledge doesn't hurt either)

If you apply the type of cash-grab thinking that's promulgated here to your development methodology, you will miss out on the tiny details that are oh-so-important to good code and good engineering design. This website misses the same points as Code.org and other misleading sites, that somehow "coding" should be a goal. As if calling methods will somehow teach you something... pfeh. What we SHOULD be teaching programmers is elegance and simplicity.

I think someone else on here has said this already, but you also fail to mention why you're qualified to teach your course. What are your credentials? How do we know that you follow established programming principles and design?

Needs a lot more work to be a reliable source. Again, I hate to say it on a Show HN, but I sincerely think that you can do better a second time around.

Morbius,

I appreciate the feedback. I am currently launching this as a beta which is why it is free to begin with. I have amended the line that you didn't like and the feedback loop is extremely important as this will be a highly iterative process.

This is just the beginning and more features will be built every day, but I would rather get feedback sooner rather than later on how I can make it a better process for students in the future.

Thank you,

John

"The freshest developers have the best configured computers"

Eh, not sure why but this line made me question your credibility.

It made you question his credibility, but don't know why? Why?

It's true though. Every developer I know has meticulously crafted their PC for the easiest use. Nobody I know runs stock anything.

I think it's because the author of the site places that as an extremely high priority, when configuring your OS is actually something that depends completely on the individual's tastes and preferences.

Use of word 'best', which is a trigger word?

Well with iOS development, you get Xcode, I'm not too sure what you can do in terms of customization.

Maybe its the buzz words "freshest developer" and "best configuration". I mean, those are probably the least important things in the process of learning to program.

Don't require a signup just to find out how you approach teaching. Also, nice landing page but you don't explain why you're qualified to teach.

Unclear to me that the instructor is at all qualified to write an iOS app, let alone teach others how to do it.

> Test Driven Development

Is this common on iOS?

I talked with someone, and he said his experience were that specs was rarely done by iOS developers. He said it wasn't a tooling issue, but more a community issue.

I don't think it's a community thing. I would absolutely use tests if I was writing any interesting, algorithmic code. Compilers, data structures, pathfinding, whatever. But most iOS apps are one half glue code that interacts with a JSON backend, and one half GUI code. Neither half is fun to test. And from my experience with coders who insist on tests, they never catch the interesting bugs anyway - session expiry in the wrong screen, animations that break if you interact with them too fast, using APIs that are not available on $(previous iOS), etc.

Unit Tests are becoming more popular in iOS as the Rails community strengthens and influences other developers, but I agree there are some aspects in which integration tests using something like KIF can be far more valuable in making sure that the code is working as intended.

Unit testing is not exclusive to Rails nor are its origins with the Rails community. JUnit (Java) was written in the '90s by Kent Beck of Smalltalk fame and still figures prominently in the Java community today.

In the past, I worked for a firm that had a fairly strict testing culture, and that applied to ios as well. We used kiwi specs, which have more-or-less the same syntax as rspec. In the end though, I think it was probably more trouble than it was worth, due to the ridiculous stubs and mocks you need to accomplish testing certain things (stubbing alloc, for instance).

Not as common as other places, but becoming more so. Etsy has a great presentation about their test framework for their iOS apps.

> iOS developers earn over $120,000 a year, and the market is growing.

Wait, what? Do you mean "can earn" or "on average earn?" The wording implies that after taking the course you will be earning $120,000/year, which doesn't seem terribly likely.

Sorry to be nit-picky, these wording issues are very easy to fix. Overall a neat looking project, consider showing more about what apps are built and how on the front page. Best of luck.

And iOS programming bootcamp graduates are infamous for landing jobs doing basic project maintenance for half that salary. Not that there's anything wrote with that, it's just the vast majority of employers seeking iOS devs @$120k/yr want candidates with successful apps on the appstore.

Damnit I'm too late. It looks really cool, and I've dabbled with Android - this looked like the perfect tool to get started on iOS with.

When do you plan on expanding to more users?

How advanced do you go? Can you tailor the course for people who have limited experience programming in iOS and want to learn more?

Absolutely! We start at the very beginning with showing you how to setup your computer through (iosinstall.com) and then go on to build 2 applications including a calculator. After that we will be building real world popular applications in an easy to follow video tutorial format! I was in your shoes 2 years ago and the best way to start is to jump in headfirst and just go for it, and this is a great starting point.

Best,

John

Looks cool. Though, when I tried to sign up I was told that the beta was closed.... hm.

Hey Ryan,

Our beta launch was going to be for 100 users and I did not expect it to get on the first page of HN and be closed out so quickly. Feel free to PM me at john@iosacademy.io and I can help you sign up.

Best,

John

Cool. You may have some tough competition with Treehouse.

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