What's old is new again

Finally finished reading "Cartoon Guide to Computer Science," which is actually a great read. It goes into detail on logic gates, binary calculations and the basics of what a computer does to manage memory and process instructions. Of course, this is the foundation. I knew a lot of that stuff, but seeing it again hammers home what you wind up doing in higher languages -- like allocating memory!

In particular, on the iPhone, the concepts of computing from 20 years ago are somewhat relevant again. Lower-powered CPU's and tight memory make designing a challenge.

I also noticed Apple recommends apps be pretty close to single-purpose. My argument is that yes, that's a good idea, but there's a way to pack functionality into an app that doesn't take up a huge footprint AND provides an intuitive, almost magical experience. I'm all about the magic.

So now I'm diving into an antiquated book on Obj-C, plus going back to monkey with Unity. I feel I'm very close to a breakthrough in Unity, which would allow me to create my first app... But Xcode is so darn good I'm bouncing between Idea A and B... I need a clone! Or, an instance of myself...

The Great Progress Bar in the Sky

Well I'm really happy about a couple of things... (OK, 3 things)
1. Yesterday I made my very first iPhone app! Thanks to a little assistance from my brother, we managed to grok the intricacies of Xcode for building a simple app and test it on the simulator. That was cool. Later I made it pretty, but for what I want to do with it before we submit to Apple, there are several improvements to be made. All of those are mostly aesthetic, but a couple will improve the functionality. So. Cool.

2. I borrowed from my brother the book "Programming in Objective-C" by Stephen G. Kochan. After reading the introduction I'm not touching a C or C++ book until I'm done with the basics of Obj-C and Cocoa Touch. I didn't realize C (and to some extent C++) are procedural. DOH! So while I'm still learning my math at a basic level, I think I need to just dive into OOP, because I've already got years of experience with procedural languages, and a number of scripting languages. Time to get this party started, as they say.

3. Speaking of parties, I just did a happy dance because, despite a lack of clarity in Kochan's book, I managed to write my first app outside of Xcode! You see, the edition of his book I have is for 10.2.6! So instead of using Project Builder (which is an antique by now), I'm going to do all code examples in Terminal and use vi. Unfortunately, I'm not an old hand at UNIX, and vi was seriously pissing me off for a while. But I slogged through it (dusting off the ancient CLI parts of my brain) and managed to write the code, compile it successfully, and execute it. This took about an hour. I am totally jazzed and can't wait to tear through this book.

I hope by 2009's WWDC to know so much more...

Working on a curriculum

Much of what I'm doing isn't really new or unique, but finding resources has been tough. Most "math prep" stuff is geared to kids who are getting ready for testing, NOT adults looking for a refresher. So here's what is on my plate thus far:

-- Math: using the DVD's from MathTutorDVD.com (and then I'm ripping and downconverting for my iPhone) Also some books:
- Linear Algebra and its Applications
- Everyday Math Demystified

-- Cocoa Touch: so far I'm still working my way through the Apple videos. Thus far I get some of what they are saying, but as I learn more about C it makes more sense.

-- Basic CompSci: re-reading Larry Gonick's classic "Cartoon Guide to Computer Science" as a sort of 101. Fun and refreshing!

-- C, C++, Objective-C, Xcode, etc.:
- My C training is mostly just online tutorials (Google search). One was terrific from an instructional design perspective, though poorly written.
- C++ is "Learn How to Program with C++" and it deals a lot with writing specs (which is good!)
- "The iPhone Developer's Cookbook" by my former colleague Erica Sadun

Everything else (so far) I'm getting from Apple on their dev site. Next installment: my experience with the Unity iPhone version.

NOTE: I'm veering into Objective-C for now, and Unity will come along in about a week or two. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving to have a long session with Unity and build something nifty.

Begin at the beginning

Math. For too long I thought "math is hard." Then I discovered that math is merely an abstraction, much like object-oriented programming. Perhaps for me it was the parallel between math and humanism (realizing this doesn't work for everyone and can be detrimental to some early students). But after years of not considering myself "gifted" in math, I'm starting to see the patterns. I'm starting, at a rather late age, to get hooked on math.

This is but one crazy side effect of diving into iPhone programming. I'm increasingly convinced of three things:
1. The iPhone platform is what I've been waiting for all my life (really long story wrapped up in this assertion, maybe I'll write it down some day).
2. Learning to program on the iPhone will have benefits in my own life far beyond simply making a little side money.
3. Developing apps for the iPhone is the culmination of all my skills and passions: storytelling, game design, visual design, interaction design, problem-solving, planning and (long ago) programming.

Now, the journey must begin. I'm barely a padawan today.