Learning how to program "apps"

Post Reply New Topic

I'd like to learn how to program so I can program smartphone apps and small programs for Windows computers. I don't think I'll ever get a job as a programmer though, since I can't handle coming into a job at a set time and the office politics that go along with a job. I want to just run my own little one person software company. What languages should I learn? Where do I start? I have all the time in the world to learn, so time isn't a problem. I always wanted to learn how to program, but was too mentally ill in my 20s to teach myself programming AND go to college. Ultimately I got a useless degree, then eventually retrained as a computer technician, and now that business is going away too. I'm fed up with "formal" education by now, all it is is a scam to strip money from people.

http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
http://developer.android.com/design/dow ... index.html
http://developer.android.com/training/index.html
This is for Android.

I'd pick up a beginners programming book, there are plenty on Amazon. I'd recommend C# and .NET if you want to do Windows or web stuff, or Java for android apps.

You should begin with setting specific goals. Wanting to learn mobile development, Windows, and programming with no prior experience is simply too much to take on. Start with introductory programming and see if you like it. Something like O'Reilly's "Practical Programming" which is a great intro. Then you'll need to get a body of knowledge of basic programming skills. Then you can tackle something like Java. Then you can go to Android. Take things step by step.

Even a seasoned programmer would be confused by the steaming pile of beta that is the Android programming interface. They have managed to both completely over-engineer the entire thing. I think they used every design pattern and OO technique known to man; but they also frequently paint themselves into corners and a lot of it simply doesn't work. Android is a rare example of something that's too well designed for its own good but also a buggy pile of crap.

The only problem with having all the time in the world is how quickly things change. By the time you learn today's hot technology, the industry has abandoned it for something else. By the time you learn one over-engineered Java framework and it gets mature, the industry dumps it and moves to the next one.

Let me be clearer: I do have a little programming experience, I took classes in college and my instructor said I had the right aptitude, but the way it was taught made it difficult for the students to learn the languages. From that experience I suspect I will need to learn program logic and flowcharting before I learn the actual languages. I know that after I left college the college made classes in logic and flowcharting mandatory before learning languages.

I'd probably start with something like VB.NET - but do simple stuff with it at first. It is an object oriented language which I think are harder to jump into, but you can use it basically as a procedural language, and I think its easier to learn procedural programming first before trying to start in on Object oriented languages. Eventually you'll be able to take advantage of the object oriented features of VB.NET, and that will be a good bridge for learning more advanced OO langauges like C# and Java.

There are plenty of Android development guides.

Java is the most useful language on Android. iPhone will need Objective-C. HTML5 is worth looking at.

if you want to get into android development then chose java, that is the language that most android apps use. If you want to go down the ios route(Bad IMO i hate apple) then you will need to get an overpriced mac and learn objective C. There is also C++ and some android apps some ios apps are written in that as well but i hear C++ is a nightmare in general. I program in java, and i actually am planning on trying android development this summer. ^_^

also try to avoid VB.net i programmed that three years ago and since learning java i am completely confused on the syntax of vb.net. Once you learn java its easier to program in c and C++ in most cases as the syntax are similar