I wish I had time to document everything that went in to this process…. There are a ton of “How To’s” and documentation bits out on the Googles (here & here). The Apple documentation is great. But I wish I could document all of the other stuff. The questions – the learning curves, etc. This has probably been the toughest “nights & weekend” project I’ve ever shot for. The learning curve is very big for a former first grade teacher. But in the end, I’ve learned a ton, including the following:
- the Xcode Interface (not mastery level, but apprentice)
- Objective-C (not even apprentice level)
- the Process (soup to nuts – but not should I could repeated, definitely couldn’t teach it)
- …that programming is really really difficult. But it does make sense.
- I can see in 1’s and 0’s like neo sometimes
- Making stuff is really really fun.
- Messing up and failing is the most important part of learning.
- …and it is going to be a while before I attempt to design and build another app
The best advise I can give anyone who is wanting to go down this path is to get a group like NKU Informatics in for an App Camp. Get a group of learners to join you for some good ol’ fashion social learning and competition. Then be in constant connect with the instructors to help you fit and finish your app and get it off to the store. There have been about 3 or 4 hurdles presented that were solved by Skype Screen Sharing and trouble shooting… where the solutions are NOT ON THE GOOGLES anywhere. There was nothing else to read to help – the only help was experienced smart people. …more to come on this…
