Newbie Programmer - Looking for advice.

Hi

I have an idea for a non game related app.

I have programmed in COBOL and RPG on the AS400 and some PHP, HTML so this will be a learning experience for sure.

I have bought a MAC Mini, and downloaded XCODE 4 and plan to learn as I program my APP.

I have some books on the subject and have some tutorials bookmarked.

I was wondering where I should start.

Are there any free samples or scripts similar to the PHP Scripts found on the internet?

Can I use Interface Builder to layout all my buttons and style of my APP?

Does anyone know of any tutorials to help me as I start my process?

The app is going to have 5 or 6 features and use GPS as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks


Mary

Cobol and RPG. OK, you're older than most. Yea, so am I.

Given that you are an experienced coder, I think a good first start maybe the Stanford iPad and iPhone App Development course on iTunes. I clicked on 'Name' to sort the classes properly. The first one is the most important. Try to 'get' the MVC (Model View Controller) concept.

The good thing about the latest version of the above course as I understand it is that it uses XCode 4 of iOS 5. That makes it very current. Some of the books you have may use the older Xcode 3 and not mention newer capabilities of iOS 5.

Apple has many free samples. They tend to be mentioned via there web site when you look up things such as location services. Type those two words into the search box of iOS Developer Library at the top right.

The books will probably be better to start with than most tutorials or samples. Rather than over saturate your learning, I think concentrating on what you have makes more sense.

StackOverflow.com can be a good place to learn things. Many common questions have been asked and answered there along with more subtle ones.

You didn't mention what books you have. Others may have some opinion on them and where to start first. For instance if you have a straight Objective-C book, you should likely go through that first.

Good luck on the adventure.

Thanks so much for your response, I will start checking the links out tomorrow for sure.

Here are the books I have

Xcode 4 iOS Development - Beginner's Guide - S. Daniel

Programming_in_Objective_C_4th_Edition

Mastering Xcode 4 - Develop and Design - J. Nozzi

iOS Programming THE BIG NERD RANCH GUIDE

Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X 4th Edition

I think you have a good collection of books there to get you grounded in Obj-C and iOS development. I've found that the Stanford classes are great at explaining some of the concepts that get very little elaboration in the books..

Hi from the list of books which one should I focus on first?

Thanks for the responses

Mary

I'd start with Programming in Objective C to get your grounding and then go to Xcode 4 iOS Development and then to iOS Programming/Master Xcode 4 and finally Cocoa programming..