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If you're like me, you've probably been spending every waking moment you have eating, living, and breathing the iPhone SDK. Since March 6th, that's pretty much all I can think about once I get home. So, what do you do if you want to learn how to write iPhone apps, but you want to become a pro at iPhone SDK programming? Its one thing to read the SDK, page-by-page until your eyes bleed (what I do for fun), but most people like to hang out with other developers, get hands on, do labs, see demos, and generally get their hands dirty.
Lucky for us, there is such an iPhone boot camp coming up in June , Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2008 in San Francisco. If you were there last year, you might have even seen me present my experiences with developing the same application for WPF and Cocoa on Leopard. It was a life-changing experience for me and you'll have to chop off all my limbs to keep me away from SF this year in June. So, what can you learn about the iPhone at WWDC? Here's just a few highlights from the published session list:
This is just the preliminary list of sessions that they have published. I'm sure the list will be growing. Also, keep in mind that this is just the list for iPhone apps... there is an entire track for Mac OS X desktop application development and entire track for IT folks looking to understand and utilize Macs.
* = If you're new to Mac programming then these should be on your MUST list. A LOT of long-time Visual Studio users have a tough time adjusting to Xcode, even to the point of declaring hatred on the tool and walking away from the platform... Hopefully sessions like these will prevent that from happening as Xcode truly does kick ass, but it does so in a unique way that can feel alien to VS2008 programmers.
So, let's run through the pros and cons.
Pros:
Cons:
Some people have an aversion to SF, so I listed it as a possible con. I can't find any downsides to this conference, so get off your butt and get an early-pricing ticket. Also, I think if you get the premium Apple Developer Connection membership, you get a free WWDC ticket with it!
My only con is the price, $1295 + room and airfare is a serious chunk of
change for an independent developer
Yeah, the price does suck if you're an independent developer. However, if
you're an independent developer you might be filing a schedule C next year,
in which case WWDC expenses make for fantastic deductions.
That does sound like the perfect spot to pick up some Objective-C and
Cocoa. But the price is a bit steep, so I can't bankroll it on my own.
I actually mentioned in a few previous blog posts that I won't be doing a
'book' on Cocoa + .NET programming. My personal life and my own sanity
can't handle the long-term consumption of everything (writing books takes
up all your spare time, no matter how much or little you have to begin
with). Out of curiosity though - what other kinds of formats would you be
interested in seeing that kind of material?
I've been following your blog for a while now, being an ex-.NET developer
doing more Rails, Django and Cocoa than ever. Life's good, and I'm going to
WWDC this year. Feel free to drop me a line if you're going too! I'd love
to meet other Cocoa developers (not a lot in Switzerland, where I live!)
Cheers
Really? I must have missed that one. What a bummer...
Your book concept did seem like to perfect a fit for my trying to pick up
this strange, enticing language and platform.
Just to let you know: I just bought an ADC Select account a few minutes
ago!
Now you owe me 500$ :-) No seriously I tried multiple times to start
with Mac development and this post (as well as the one on your ADC
experience) definitely got me. I think I followed your blog for too long,
maybe I'll get an MB Air later this year with the HW discount :-)
BTW regarding your formats questions:
I'd like (no, love!) to see some step-by-step tutorials for about anything
you consider interestingly.
While there are some great Cocoa resources on the net, there definitely
aren't enough yet!
I want to attend this .NET/Cocoa lecture of yours. Announce your session
time and place ahead of time so I'll know where to go. I don't want to miss
the opportunity to step on your foot again!
Looking forward to it James... though this time maybe I'll wear steel-toed
boots.
