What nightcourse can I do to get into programming?

cojomo2

This maybe slightly off topic but I'm thinking some here may be able to point me in the rite direction..

Im currently self employed(retail) and as you can imagine things are going crap at the moment...

Id love to be able to spend hours writings apps for app store, and Id love to work for a company designing software for mobiles phones etc..and id love t be able to understand all the work the likes of the Dev team do, and be able to do similar....

So where do I start? What type of night course would best suite this?Keep in mind money is in low supply at the moment...Id love to do a course like this and then when my lease is up(retail unit) I could go job hunting for something I would find really interesting ..any help appreciated.

anoble66

hi cojomo2 - I am thinking the same as yourself. I have a little background in programming but not in Object C which is what you need to use for Iphone app programming.

What I have found good is the Stanford Iphone application programming course, its free and available online....link below:-

http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/downloads.php

My plan is to go through the course and try the assignments, try to build up my skills and then eventually attempt to build my own app.....of course first hurdle is to get the Leopard OS running on my PC :rolleyes:

Here is a link to some info on that too:-

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=118663

Let me know how you get on, maybe we can help each other with this.
Thanks

Tom Dunne

I think I might just be able to offer some advice here.

It all depends on what experience/qualifications you have right now.

For example, IT Tallaght has a MSc course in distributed and mobile computing* but you need a BSc to do that.

If you are only starting out, i.e. with no qualifications, I recommend you look into an Ordinary Degree (Level 7) in computing. Programming for mobile devices is quite similar to programming computers, you can specialise at a later stage, once you have the basics out of the way.

Perhaps some of the guys who develop apps (looking at lackofcolour, fiddlemeragged and fbradyirl here) could give you some advice as to how they got into it.







*in the interest of full disclosure and all that, I used to work at IT Tallaght. I have no connections with the Institute any more

john__long

Cocoa is the name of the frameworks used in iPhone development.

Get yourself a good book on that!

There's a few sites out there too!

For example, http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/

fiddlemeragged

I came from the route of studying computer science at degree level and went on from there.

I work in the software industry full time now and write apps during the evenings and weekends when I have the time. My background's really in C, C++, UNIX and telecoms and I'm picking up iPhone development as I go along - it really helped that I had a good background in C programming.

The best advice I could offer, in my opinion, is to learn some C and some basic object-oriented programming concepts - jumping into Objective-C (the language used for iPhone development for the most part) isn't too bad after that as there are a lot of frameworks available with the SDK that do a lot of work for you. (Add to that there are a lot of examples and tutorials on line now that didn't exist even a year ago.)

I use this forum / site a lot
iphonedevsdk.com
A lot of people speak highly of this on-line course material
Stanford Cocoa / iPhone App Programming Course

cojomo2

fiddlemeragged wrote: »

I came from the route of studying computer science at degree level and went on from there.

I work in the software industry full time now and write apps during the evenings and weekends when I have the time. My background's really in C, C++, UNIX and telecoms and I'm picking up iPhone development as I go along - it really helped that I had a good background in C programming.

The best advice I could offer, in my opinion, is to learn some C and some basic object-oriented programming concepts - jumping into Objective-C (the language used for iPhone development for the most part) isn't too bad after that as there are a lot of frameworks available with the SDK that do a lot of work for you. (Add to that there are a lot of examples and tutorials on line now that didn't exist even a year ago.)

I use this forum / site a lot
iphonedevsdk.com
A lot of people speak highly of this on-line course material
Stanford Cocoa / iPhone App Programming Course

Thanks for the advice. I currently have zero experience in computers..so basically, would you say doing a 'computer programming' course would be a good place to start?Keeping in mind Id like to get a full time job in this field in the next couple of years

Stephen

Yeah, you'd want to get some experience programming. Most of the fundamentals you will learn will be the same from language to language.

Tom Dunne

cojomo2 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. I currently have zero experience in computers..so basically, would you say doing a 'computer programming' course would be a good place to start?Keeping in mind Id like to get a full time job in this field in the next couple of years

Yes, without question.

As Stephen says, once you learn one programming language, you will easily pick up another. Plus it will give you a grounding in all the associated technologies, such as networking client/server, etc.

cojomo2

Great, thanks.

Just having a look at what DIT have to offer, all I can see is this one:

http://www.comp.dit.ie/dt249/modules/index.html

What do you think? Ideally Id like to do a course just focusing on programming and to a lesser extent a few other things..I'm thinking this course is a bit too general maybe?

Tom Dunne

cojomo2 wrote: »

I'm thinking this course is a bit too general maybe?

Not really.

All degrees will be generally broad in scope, covering a number of subjects. You really do need the broad scope if you want to become a good programmer.

For example, if you were writing a program that needs to access a database - you would need at least some basic information on connecting to and reading/writing from/to a database.

Another example - the vast majority of iPhone applications use some form of network connection. You would ideally need some basic knowledge of networking to do it properly, especially to troubleshoot if (when) it doesn't work.

Deep Thought

Hi Comojo

I recently finsihed B.Sc in IT Mgt at Tallaght .

Its broad ok, but we learnt Java, VB, SQL,PHP,HTML, UNIX, and also did networking, Distributed Mobile Computing ,Security, Dbase and Systems Analysis and then the MGT stuff like Finance, Innovation and Entrenpreuer stuff.

Excellent course and sponsored by the government so fees were €1000 per year

You wont get any degree for that money anywhere else.

Have a look at their prospectus at www.it-tallaght.ie

It was three nights a week, but it flys by. Lecturers great and very encouraging.

If you want more info, let me know.

Szondi

cojomo2

Szondi wrote: »

Hi Comojo

I recently finsihed B.Sc in IT Mgt at Tallaght .

Its broad ok, but we learnt Java, VB, SQL,PHP,HTML, UNIX, and also did networking, Distributed Mobile Computing ,Security, Dbase and Systems Analysis and then the MGT stuff like Finance, Innovation and Entrenpreuer stuff.

Excellent course and sponsored by the government so fees were €1000 per year

You wont get any degree for that money anywhere else.

Have a look at their prospectus at www.it-tallaght.ie

It was three nights a week, but it flys by. Lecturers great and very encouraging.

If you want more info, let me know.

Szondi

Hey Szondi,

Thanks a mill for that info..looks very interesting. To be honest, I was more looking for a 12 month course to get me up to speed in prorgamming , and then after that if I felt the need I would do something additional to broaden my knowledge a bit. I found a computer programming course in rathmines college of further education, its 12 months and ony 200 odd euro..only problem is its a full time day course..ill keep looking to see if I can find something by night. The IT Tallaght course you mentioned tho does look great and I will defo keep it in mind. How did you find it? Did you start from scratch and did it require a lot of time/study , i.e did you find it a struggle or was it grand as long as you atteneded all the lectures and kept your ears open?

also, is pretty much everyone eligible for the grant so the course will only cost 1200/year ? Does it cost a lot for the course materials? Thanks again.

Deep Thought

cojomo2 wrote: »

Hey Szondi,

also, is pretty much everyone eligible for the grant so the course will only cost 1200/year ? Does it cost a lot for the course materials? Thanks again.

Hi Comojo2

Everyone is eligible for the grant. Material wise, its was what we call a FLITE course - Flexible Learning in IT Education.

All course material online via college App called Moodle.

I only bought one book in three years.

Its distance learning meaning you dont always have to attend lectures but here are always lectures ongoing three nights a week each week of teh semester.

I started pretty much from scratch other that the knowledge I had built up myself through the years...certainly knew nothing about programming or networking.

cojomo2

Szondi wrote: »

Hi Comojo2

Everyone is eligible for the grant. Material wise, its was what we call a FLITE course - Flexible Learning in IT Education.

All course material online via college App called Moodle.

I only bought one book in three years.

Its distance learning meaning you dont always have to attend lectures but here are always lectures ongoing three nights a week each week of teh semester.

I started pretty much from scratch other that the knowledge I had built up myself through the years...certainly knew nothing about programming or networking.

Thanks. How intense is the course? Does it require a lot of time/study outside of lectures, as say an engineering degree?

Tom Dunne

Szondi wrote: »

I recently finsihed B.Sc in IT Mgt at Tallaght .

I personally believe that particular course has too much of a management slant, for somebody who wants to get into programming his iPhone (I used to lecture on a module on that course ).

Given that cojomo2 is more interested in programming than general management, I would recommend a more computer science slanted course.

Deep Thought

cojomo2 wrote: »

Thanks. How intense is the course? Does it require a lot of time/study outside of lectures, as say an engineering degree?

Hi

Its not that intense. The course is modular, so once subject is done and you pass it, then its done so no need to worry about it again.

the last Semester was intense ..but then it was our finals so always tough.

It no where as near intense a engineering.

Whats important it the fact it a management degree but with plenty of techie stuff but not a real technical one such as Engineering with a little mgt stuff.

The outcome is to give you wide range of subjects with loads of experience to allow you to work in different environments and to be alble to manage people and do budgets etc. the techincal aspect allows you to know when people are spoofing you to be able to "Speak" their lingo.

I completed mine 2.5 years, so its doable.

Deep Thought

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I personally believe that particular course has too much of a management slant, for somebody who wants to get into programming his iPhone (I used to lecture on a module on that course ).

Given that cojomo2 is more interested in programming than general management, I would recommend a more computer science slanted course.

mmmmmmmm.......tell me more.....what modules

And agree Computer Science would be better for the progrmmer side

OREGATO

just been reading into this myself, can someone confirm that if you were going to try and develop apps for the iphones/itouchs, you would have to invest in a mac machine as well? or else use vmware to do it??

is this difficult to do, the costs of getting a mac machine for attempting this would scare me away from trying it.

anoble66

I think basically if your looking to get into app development you need to be thinking of getting a mac eventually....but I do think learning the ropes with VMware and a Leopard 10.5 image should be fine......but I am only just looking into this myself so could be completely wrong.