Welcome to the Treehouse Community
Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.
Looking to learn something new?
Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.
Start your free trial
Ishan Haque
Courses Plus Student 1,995 Pointsis learning iOS for a first language efficient?
Hi!
I'm new to programming, I had prior experience a bit in HTML & CSS but I don't think that's considered as programming. Anyway, I started the iOS Objective-C tutorial and found the teacher for that course hard to follow and wondered, why not learn 'Swift'. I love the teaching style and the teacher for the course is much more understandable as i'm 15.
My question is, I wan't to develop iOS applications but I see many people saying to learn something like Python or Ruby as their first language. Is there enough resources for 'Swift' for me to build an app? Is 'Swift' not a good start for a beginner in the world of programming? Will it be reliable for 'Swift' to get a stable job?
1 Answer
Michael Hulet
47,913 PointsFirst of all, way to get started with coding and thinking about your future super early! I'm 16 myself, and my first language was C, the very basis of Objective-C, which Swift is sort-of derived from. I love iOS development. It's currently my favorite platform to develop for, and it's super easy, though I'd definitely try Objective-C first. It's a much easier language conceptually, it has much wider support across the internet, and chances are that if you do get a job in iOS development, it'll be in Objective-C, instead of Swift. It's been around for a lot longer, so it's a far more mature language, and there are far more people who know how to help out. Due to some combination of these reasons, the vast majority of apps on the App Store are written in Objective-C. so it's far more likely that a place you'd get hired would have an existing app that's written in Objective-C
Ishan Haque
Courses Plus Student 1,995 PointsIshan Haque
Courses Plus Student 1,995 PointsThank you! I'm heading into my final years of school and I don't want to devote a ton of time into something that won't help me in the long run.
Michael Hulet
47,913 PointsMichael Hulet
47,913 PointsIt's awesome you're thinking about that so soon. That's more than many college students can say. Anyway, not to drive you away from iOS (it's a great platform that's a lot of fun to develop for), but I hear the real money today is in Ruby on Rails
Ishan Haque
Courses Plus Student 1,995 PointsIshan Haque
Courses Plus Student 1,995 PointsThanks for the suggestion, I have a question for you. After doing the courses on Treehouse for iOS can you develop applications confidently? I mean you always need help and what not but can you make a prototype of an average difficulty app? I'm thinking about getting really into Swift, maybe learn Objective-C and start making my own apps. What do you think?
Michael Hulet
47,913 PointsMichael Hulet
47,913 PointsI'm totally Treehouse-trained (I took the Objective-C track in July and the Swift track in late August), and I have one app on the App Store (written in Objective-C), I made a quick counter app in Swift in about 15 minutes last night that actually turned out pretty well, I'm making an app for a friend to browse A&E's schedule (so he can compete in a DECA competition), and I have 2 separate entities paying me a few thousand dollars to write them each an app. I've also competed in 2 hackathons (both about 2 months ago) where I've written an iPhone app from start to finish in about 24-48 hours, and I've done pretty well in each. Again, I'm totally Treehouse-trained within the past 4-5 months. If you continue down their iOS tracks, I'd be willing to bet that Treehouse will get you competitive in today's iOS job market (I say that not just from my own experience, but one of my friends wrote Workflow, which was the #1 most downloaded app on the App Store for about 4 days, and it's The Next Web's "Best App of 2014"). He says that he thinks Treehouse is one of the most brilliant resources for learning out there
nec
3,886 Pointsnec
3,886 PointsHi Michael Hulet I know this question is a few months old but I hope you still have notifications linked so you will see this. I am mostly learning programming as a hobby but would love to be able to take on small freelance project at some point in the future.
I have a few questions that hopefully you wouldn't mind answering.
1) You mentioned two separate entities are paying you money to make them an app. I was curious about whether or not you felt you were able to complete those two tasks with only the knowledge provided in the Objective C and Swift Tracks? If not, what did you find that you weren't able to do or least comfortable with and what resource (friends, books, websites, and etc.) did you use to supplement?
2) Workflow app that you mentioned that your friend developed and looks great. What do you feel is the difference between the abilities of someone like yourself (who is treehouse trained in iOS development) vs. someone like your friend who developed Workflow? If your friend has thoughts on that, it would be great to hear about them too. My main purpose for asking is to try to understand at what point should I feel competent enough to contribute to a team or even list iOS development as a skill.
Thank you