iOS Development resources for newcomers
Becoming an iOS Developer is an alluring journey to take.
If you are reading this article, I will assume that you are taking the very first steps in iOS Development, striving to get as much information as you can. We are lucky to reach that much information in just a few mouse clicks. But seeing that many open ways to learn something new about development might make you think, which is the best way to take it on. Over two years ago, I was introduced to the iOS community. I was a newcomer just like you. Now I want to share some of the resources that I find helpful on that journey.
Before I move to the point, I want to let you know that taking that journey is fascinating, but it might be pretty difficult as well. But, if you feel happy and enthusiastic about what you do, success will come.
There are different types of resources that you might choose for learning iOS Development. I will cover some of them and share my experience.
Blogs
Hacking with Swift
An outstanding developer, Paul Hudson has created blogs, articles, books, courses, youtube channel to share knowledge. Today I want to highlight 100 Days of Swift course. It is aimed at beginners and is a collection of tutorials, tests, and exercises. It starts with an introduction to the Swift programming language, and in a few weeks, you will find yourself developing small yet amusing iOS apps.
In 2019 Apple introduced SwiftUI to the iOS community. It is the way of building user interfaces and uses declarative syntax. As Apple pushes SwiftUI that much, it might be a good idea to start with that. I would recommend 100 Days of SwiftUI as a starting point. This is quite similar to the course mentioned above, with the difference that it uses SwiftUI.
Swift by Sundell
Swift by Sundell is the blog created by John Sundell. It is a collection of tutorials and articles. Topics are well organized, and you will discover exciting articles covering SwiftUI, Combine, Concurrency, etc. An essential part for beginners might be the Basics tab. Here you will find articles that will help you build basic knowledge in Swift programming language, covering topics such as loops, properties, layout, etc.
SwiftLee
SwiftLee is the weekly blog created by Antoine v.d. You will explore more about Swift. Get known with Xcode and learn some of its tips and tricks. Explore exciting topics regarding newly added features to the language. Learn some of the swift keywords. It’s a good idea to make reading one or two articles per day a habit. It will help you a lot, and maybe someday you will start your blog, sharing knowledge among others.
Podcasts
Listening to podcasts is an excellent way of getting passive information. You have a chance to listen to experienced developers sharing knowledge. You don’t have to watch the screen for a long time. Choose your favorite podcast and listen on the go or maybe before sleep. It might not give you a deep technical knowledge but will create an overall mindset about the industry you will enter. In just a few weeks after you start listening to podcasts, it will be pretty clear to mention that your storytelling improves and tech vocabulary gets richer. Below is the list of the podcasts that I listen. You can start with any of them and figure out how it works for you.
- Swift by Sundell
- Inside iOS Dev
- iOS Dev Discussions — Sean Allen
- The Swift Community Podcast
- Swift over Coffee
Raywenderlich
Raywenderlich is a community of developers who are ready to share knowledge. The website contains thousands of Video Courses, Books, Articles made by professionals. Raywenderlich is one of my favorites. Once you start reading articles there or following their learning paths, it’s going to become your favorite as well. For the beginning, I suggest choosing the beginner path and Swift Apprentice book. It will give you essential skills to boost your iOS journey.
Apple
Bring Your Ideas to Life — Apple is pursuing to make development better, offering frameworks, ideas, guidelines to bring our ideas to life. While learning the iOS Development following Apple is a must. Many resources can be used to enrich our skills. First, let’s take a look at the so-called Swift Book. It starts with language basics and ends with advanced topics. Well, you might not be the book person and prefer video tutorials over them. Develop Apps for iOS is the course teaching basics of Xcode, SwiftUI, and UIKit. Introducing SwiftUI Free tutorial, that gives you the basics of SwiftUI. “Courses are as intuitive as our products” — Apple.
I’m glad to say that that’s not all. Apple offers us the Apple Developer app, which contains a bunch of information separated into topics. So, all you have to do is to pick one of your interests and start loving it.
It’s a good idea to have some knowledge about Human Interface Guidelines. Apple provides resources for that to “Get in-depth information and UI resources for designing great apps that integrate seamlessly with Apple platforms.”
Twitter is the platform where you’ll find iOS Community. The place where you can share your experiences, troubles, and knowledge while collecting them from others. You’ll follow the latest updates code practices and gain some soft skills. Interacting in that social networking service will help you make iOS development a profession and a hobby. You can start by following me, well, definitely not the best one to follow, but it could be worse.
