iPhone Programming Guide

On August 23, 2010 my first iPhone Web App, InstaPay, went live on the Apple.com WebApps site.  I would say that the app has been very well received.  According to Google Analytics in the first week of release I’ve had almost 700 unique visitors to the web app.

The InstaPay web app is an informational app.  It’s purpose is to provide the user with information about instant payment affiliate commission programs.  These instant payment commission programs allow affiliates to get paid via the PayPal service immediately rather than wait days or weeks for an affiliate check or direct deposit.

This app is best viewed on a mobile phone using a Webkit browser.  The app is optimized for iOS devices.

Checkout InstaPay by clicking HERE

In yet another move to make Mac and iOS programming available to the masses, Apple has released the 2010 WWDC sessions on video to all registered Apple developers.  This is the latest move by Apple to woo developers.  The first move came with the reduction of the price for the developer program from $3500 and $500 to just $99 for the iOS program and $99 for the Mac developer program.

This is huge!  I have 3 sets of WWDC session videos from 2000, 2001, and 2002.  I got those videos because I attended WWDC.  Since then I have been unable to bring myself to pay the $500 for the session videos.  But now that the videos are available to all I’m able to take advantage of the same information that the session attendees received.  No more reading between the lines when reading the various developer blogs that I read daily.  Now I can go view the sessions myself and get the NDA’d info.

Even better the video is available to view on all of my various Apple devices.  I can watch it on my iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac.  Between the TED conference videos and WWDC sessions I got hours and hours of great TV to watch this summer!

If you’re an Apple Developer CLICK HERE to watch the WWDC 10 videos

I just completed chapters 4 and 5.  The big take away at this point is that “Reading is Fundamental”.  I mean that reading the Apple documentation is something that you’re going to have to get use to if you want to become a good iPhone programmer.

In order to complete the challenges for chapter’s 4 & 5 I had to have a look at the documentation for how to implement some of the classes and methods.  Most notably the NSDate, NSDateFormatter, and MKReverseGeocoder classes where all classes that I needed to look up.

Apple provides good documentation, and I was even able to solve one of the challenges by using sample code provided by Apple in the documentation.

Chapters 4 and 5 are all about the delegation pattern.  I would assume that delegation is a big part of iPhone programming because they make a point of drumming it into your head for 2 chapters.  Chapter 4 maybe a chapter that you want to read more than once.

One of the good things about the new version of the Kindle App for iPad is that it will allow you to hi-lite text, create bookmarks, and make notes.  I’ve utilized the hi-lite feature and the bookmarks so far to mark passages that I want to go over later.

I’ve just finished up chapter 2.  Chapter 2 uses a command line tool app to go over the basics of Objective-C programming.  It’s really ingenious the terms that they use to get you to understand object-oriented programming.  I wish the guys at Big Nerd Ranch had released a book on Java programming in 1999.  It would have made learning that language so much more pleasurable.

The big take away from this chapter is “Follow the Conventions of Objective-C”.  The instructors ask that you follow proper Objective-C programming conventions, and they ask that you do things their way for the present.  Once you’ve finished the book, you are encouraged to go off on your own and challenge what they have taught you.

Personally, I like a nice pattern and way of doing things.  It makes it much easier to create new applications in my opinion.  Add in the fact that Aaron Hillegass has been working with Objective-C for about 2 decades so I think I know what he’s talking about.

Chapter 3 is all about memory management.  You’ll probably want to read chapter 3 more than once if you are new to memory management.  If you are coming from a Java background you’re probably appalled by the fact that you have to manage your own memory.  I know that I was a little intimidated at first, but with practice you get the hang of it, and like everything else repetition creates familiarity.

The best part of chapter 3 comes after all of the nice explanations of how memory management works, and why you need to use it.  They give you 5 rules and one exception so that you can effectively implement memory management in your coding.  Learn these rules and memory management will be a breeze.

I just read over at Jeff Lamarche’s blog that he will be working on releasing an OpenGL ES book for iOS4 this year.  This is good news.  So now we can expect at least 2 quality books on OpenGL ES for iOS 4.  The other book will be coming from the folks over at Big Nerd Ranch.

Jeff is the author of my other favorite iPhone programming book —  Beginning iPhone 3 Development:  Exploring the iPhone SDK

This was the very first book that I read, and it help me to develop my first iPhone app.  I must say that after finishing the book I had a good foundation for developing iPhone apps.

Check out the blog post here:

http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/06/announcing-opengl-es-for-ios-4.html