iOS App Development For Complete & Utter Coding Beginners

Programming is often confused with geeky hobbies. It’s anything but! In fact programming has far more to do with Lego than geeks. Programming os the basic building block we use to create whatever our brains can imagine! To me that’s pretty cool - this video shows you why.

Xcode includes the ability to write and evaluate code using playgrounds. This is a handy tool to try out code blocks before you commit them to your app project.

Variables are the building blocks of your code. in this lecture we discuss exactly what that means and why you should care. We also note that different kinds of variables exist and I show you a few gotchas based on this.

In concert with variables you will also create methods or functions. You can think of a function as a handy bock of code that has a name. Every time the function name is called the code inside it is executed.

Write a small playground program to subtract two numbers. You should try to use two integers and a function that performs the subtraction.

You will learn how to create a very basic app in Xcode for universal devices (that means iPhone and iPad).

There sure is a lot of code hanging around in your shiny new iOS app. What does it all mean? What sections do what? In this lecture I show you how Apple likes to structure apps and once you know then it doesn't seem so complicated. In fact iOS app project structures will seem pretty easy!

All iOS apps have a special type of file that stores what a re called storyboards. These storyboards are a graphical representation of what your app will look like. This lecture covers how you will connect those graphical elements to the backend code of your app.

A special request from me that takes no more than 30 seconds and is very much appreciated!

You will make a temperature converter iOS app by applying the methods we have already learnt. You will learn how to leverage more complex code that performs arithmetic and updates the graphical parts of our app (storyboards). sounds complex but is actually pretty simple)

The main screen of your iOS app needs to be connected to backend code. Yes, we covered this before but what we will do here is a little more complex. A few more functions are required but it’s all within the capabilities of a beginner.

Here’s where the main Swift 2 code gets written.

A few little niceties for you to try out within your app. What if someone puts text in place of a number? The app crashes. As good app developers we should have a check for this to prevent exception errors (which make apps crash).

Source code for the temperature converter is included in a downloadable file for this lecture.

What you’ll be building.

You’ll explore auto layouts and constraints in Xcode storyboards a little more thoroughly. Learn how to move things around relative to each other regardless of the final device you’ll be running on. Whether it’s iPad or iPhone or iPad Pro you need to be sure the storyboard looks right!

You’ll learn how to add multiple buttons using copy paste. Clever use of constraints will take care of button placements relative to each other inside of the storyboard.

We explore creation of functions in Swift 2 that allow connections through outlets and actions. That sounds like a mouthful but in reality it’s really simple to do. Programers sure do like to use big fancy words to explain simple stuff!

The core logic is written here. Plus, minus, multiply and subtract. Our code gets tested to breaking point.

calculators are pretty useless if we can only type a single digit! You’ll learn how to use a boolean to check if we’re still typing a number or typing an operator (like plus or minus)

This is where it all happens. You’ll write the final code to perform the sum as well firing a message box to provide the answer. Message boxes are provided by the UIAlertView class in Swift 2.

Source code for the calculator is attached to this lecture. Please unzip and open in Xcode if you get stuck!