Best resources available for a beginner?

Is this something that requires a lot of prior knowledge or an extensive amount of self-taught education? Would it be more feasible to consider a third party provider?

If you have the time you can learn it. What are you trying to accomplish?

dam

OldSoully said:

---

Best resources available for a beginner?

Is this something that requires a lot of prior knowledge or an extensive amount of self-taught education? Would it be more feasible to consider a third party provider?

---

If you've never programmed, I'd say you have at minimum 2 years of learning to do in your free time assuming you have an aptitude for it.

iPhone, Android, or both?

Most programming is just copy & pasting from stackoverflow, you just have to figure out what to copy and where to paste it.

redd38 said:

---

iPhone, Android, or both?

Most programming is just copy & pasting from stackoverflow, you just have to figure out what to copy and where to paste it.

---

Sshh, don't tell everyone the secret.

There is a free drag and drop programming website for Android called MIT App Inventor 2.
ai2.appinventor.mit.edu
This can work if you only want to create a couple of apps without taking the time to learn hardcore programming.
Generally you want to use Java for Android and Objective-C (similar to C++ but different enough to break your C++ code) for iOS. You also pretty much need a Mac to develop for Apple (or illegally run OS X on a "Hackintosh" or virtual machine on Non-Mac hardware) If your not already broke buying a Mac, then you have to pay for the cash for the Apple Developer License. With Android you have much more freedom to develop and publish your apps as you see fit.
TLDR: Android development is easier and cheaper than iOS development
Edit to add: The variance of Android with different phone manufactures can make it more complicated than iOS development in some ways.

1. Get a Mac
2. Install Xcode and Android Studio
3. Install some kind of server platform, assuming the app isn't standalone (I like PHP / MySQL to start)
4. Learn Swift, Java, PHP, and SQL
5. Take some good IOS and Android 101 courses (I like the Ray Wenderlich series.)
6. Use Stackoverflow for every question
7. Code
8. Profit

Note: Steps 4, 5 and 6,7 can be combined.

boboguitar said:

---

Unfortunately 7&8 don't necessarily combine.

---

Ain't that the truth?

It's been several years since I've messed around with mobile apps, but wondering if PhoneGap or some similar alternative is still out there for cross-platform development. I always thought it was ridiculous to have to write 2 sets of code to produce the same app.

I've been using react native professionally for about a year and a half. 90% of your code will work on both platforms. The other 10% is stuff that is platform specific like push notifications, permissions management, and the actual app deployment process.

Note that it's a JavaScript framework that builds UIs using the native platform's UI manager. So you get the native app look/feel, but you don't necessarily have to learn Java and Swift/Objective C. (There are some edge cases where you might have to write native code though.)

Halibut said:

---

I've been using react native professionally for about a year and a half. 90% of your code will work on both platforms. The other 10% is stuff that is platform specific like push notifications, permissions management, and the actual app deployment process.

Note that it's a JavaScript framework that builds UIs using the native platform's UI manager. So you get the native app look/feel, but you don't necessarily have to learn Java and Swift/Objective C. (There are some edge cases where you might have to write native code though.)

---

Yep I built an app on a local LAMP stack using HTML5, CSS, and javascript on the client side and, php, mysql on the back end then ported it using hosting from Go Daddy. The thing runs on ANY OS or platform running a modern browser. Unless you are accessing client side hardware or local drivers you dont need to use Java, Swift or Objective C.

This is not an approach for every application but it sure works on a bunch of 'em. And these tools can get you productive quickly but be prepared to study and put in the time.

you guys have either impressed the OP beginner programmer or scared the hell out of him. LOL