Week 4 progress has not been as expected. What I have realized is that XCode, the programming language for iOS App development, like any other language, takes time and practice. This piece has been rewarding as I feel like I am starting to understand it. I have an incredible amount of information in my “XCode Notebook.” However, from a production standpoint, it has gone quite slow. I have learned terminology and nomenclature and how to translate this to basic objects on the user interface.
Within the next several days, these user will be able to interact with these in the form of the simple card game War. To date, I have used the following resources:
- The YouTube Channel “Code with Chris.” As explained in my week 2 Blog post, Code with Chris is completely dedicated to iOS App development. While he mainly teaches beginners, I have noticed some interesting dialogue when going to his discussion forums for help and advice from others with much more advanced skill in this programming language. The discussion forum has been especially helpful for me as it got me through a couple of simple, yet frustrating pieces of programming. In one instance, I was having a difficult time figuring out how to place objects on the storyboard so they stayed consistently spaced regardless of the rotation of the iOS device.
Someone in the discussion forum sent me to an incredibly helpful video (coincidentally, also written by Chris). This was a much better way to learn for me. Instead of simply getting the answer and inserting revisions in my code, I was able to watch the video and practice this until I became a bit more proficient with the autocorrect and pinning features.
- Lynda.com is an online, video-based learning website that can teach anything from computer programs to business and marketing tactics, to photography. While I did find several interesting videos concentrating on the XCode programming language, I found myself getting confused. Having said that, as I get more proficient in XCode, Il re-explore these videos perhaps with a different perspective.
- XCode Support from the Apple Developer Forum: Since I would have to subscribe to this service anyway in order to publish my apps in the App Store, I decided to join and get a feel for what this service could do for me. However, as I am just a beginner, this appears to cater more to software engineers and serious developers.
The greatest challenge for me has been technical issues. I have an older MacBook that is running XCode 6 at a sluggish pace. While I have ordered a new Solid State Drive and more RAM to install, which should make my computer performance issues a bit more manageable, I am still needing to make progress on this assignment. To that end, I am attempting to work through these challenges. Additionally, learning this programming language has not progressed as quickly as I had originally hoped. I find myself needing to pause, rewind and even review videos multiple times in order to understand key concepts. However, I feel that I am making progress. Between learning XCode and performing some basic computer hardware maintenance, I will attain my eventual goal of programming a useful app for my team.
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