Some good analogies in here.

How hard to make an iPhone app ? - Mac Forums

I quite like this one:

The level of difficulty is somewhere between making a PB&J and building a space shuttle.

No prior programming experience? None, whatsoever? I have a feeling it'll be an exercise in futility. I'm not sure what to tell people like that. I mean, how much inclination does this person have to program anyway? If they're pretty good programmers who just haven't started programming yet (I.E. all potential), then yeah, maybe. The IDE is really good, one of the best I've seen. Show me a sample of their pseudo-code, then I'll tell you.

OpenCL for the mac, anyway won't have to be supported by the app, it'll be supported at a base level by the operating system.

But it doesn't make sense to use it in all cases. Parallel GPU's are even more specialized hardware than multiple cores.

No prior programming experience? None, whatsoever?

Dusty, yes--none.

I have a feeling it'll be an exercise in futility.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I anticipated.

Programming requires logic, nothing more, all else is syntax. Of course, that is in my rather limited experience.

That sounds like it's coming from someone who has a natural inclination to program. And to someone like that, yes, it'd be straightforward, but I've met too many people who do not to believe this to always be the case. Some very bright people, too, it's not just lay-people.

The way I word it is, one must be able to "think like a computer"...which will really only make sense to people to whom it will already make sense, so it's not very helpful.

Yep, I believe we are actually saying pretty much the same thing. Now, writing elegant code, that requires experience.

if (location.gps) = movie theater

volume = 100%

} else if (location.gps) = whore house

vibrate

My wife (through her company) has been doing some work with iPhone apps. She's the biz dev side, not the programming side. How difficult would it be for someone with no prior programming experience to learn programming for iPhone apps?

You know, I'm going to change my answer -- just try it. Register for the free SDK, download it, and see if it can be figured out. It is a really good interface.

And watch the video, where, during one of the meetings (WWDC? Town Hall?) they actually brought someone up on stage, and he developed something there, on the fly, in real time. I'll post a link, later. There's also some tutorial videos.

But start by registering and downloading the SDK. I believe you have access to the iPhone emulator.

How difficult would it be for someone with no prior programming experience to learn programming for iPhone apps?

Only a little bit harder than taking a person with zero law experience and turning them into a top-notch trial lawyer.

You'll need to study The Tao of Programing.

Thus spake the master programmer:

"When you have learned to snatch the error code

from the trap frame, it will be time for you to leave.''

Edited June 17, 200917 yr by ingwe
ocd

do watching reruns of Law and Order count as law experience?

I sure hope so. That's all I'm relying upon.

:dinny:

Lucky Pierre.

This might come in handy, once it stabilizes a bit.

cool poop

Close now.

After experiencing the beauty that is the 24" IMac this weekend I'm strongly considering one for our home computer replacement. Yikes.

Dewwwwwwwwww Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

For the paranoid among us, this is a neat little free utility, given that what few Mac attacks there currently have tended to try this vector.

very cool, thanks stretch

After experiencing the beauty that is the 24" IMac this weekend I'm strongly considering one for our home computer replacement. Yikes.

Definitely dew eeet. Our one regret is buying a 20" iMac instead of the 24".

Hmmm, I replied to this and it didn't show...

Anyway, the 24" refurbs they have right now are wicked tempting and if it weren't for the two broken ⌘ keys on my macbook that have me annoyed with Apple right now I'd be much more inclined to dew eet. I want to have a look at the 20" version at the Apple store when I get the mbook repaired since really that will be plenty for what I intend to do with this thing.

macbook topcases (the part with the keyboard and track pad) are very easy to replace, should you be so inclined. They cost between $30 and $50 on ebay.

I've got Applecare so I'm going to force them to do this one. The keyboard has never been quite right (keys don't align, aren't at the same elevation, some feel really loose) so I'm hopeful they'll replace the topcase for me. But thanks for the suggestion, I've always wanted to do the ying/yang black keyboard setup after hearing about how you did it.