Resources for Beginning iOS Development

Recently, a coworker was interested in learning iOS development and asked me to recommend to him a few resources for learning and I thought that I would also share this here.

Here are a couple resources for learning iOS:

Intro Books

1. iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (4th Edition) - This book only covers iOS 7 and Objective-C, but a lot of the same concepts will apply in iOS 8. This would be good intro to iOS and also learning Objective-C. Some of the text might be out of date since the Xcode UI has changed a little bit. I originally started learning with the Beginning iPhone Development book (below), and I read this one after; I thought that the Big Nerd Ranch book went in to more in depth on almost all the topics and I was able to pick a few tips on how to better structure my code.

2. Beginning iPhone Development with Swift: Exploring the iOS SDK - This book is also gives a good intro to iPhone development, but this one is written for iOS 8 and is in Swift if you want to skip the Objective-C part.

Learning Swift

1. I recommend just reading Apple's book on Swift to learn the language. It's available in iBooks here and on the web here. 

2. There is also a second part of the book above that covers using Swift with Cocoa and Objective-C, which goes into more advanced topics but is a good follow up read after reading the first part. The iBooks link is here.

A common question I see is should I learn Swift or Objective-C? I think that if you are looking for a job as a iOS developer, you will need to learn both because most likely the company/client already has existing code that is in Objective-C. You can mix and match Swift and Objective-C code, but you need an understanding of both to do so. If you are able to develop an app from scratch, you can probably get away with only learning Swift. It is also good to point out that the 3rd party library support for Swift is very weak right now, so if you don't mind reinventing the wheel (a good way to learn) then this is the way to go. You can also always refer to open source libraries written in Objective-C and convert them to Swift yourself (another benefit for learning both languages).

Other resources (tutorial sites and blogs)

1. http://www.raywenderlich.com/ - This site has a lot of useful tutorials for not only beginners but also intermediate and advanced iOS developers. When I was first starting out, I frequented this site and tried to do as many tutorials as I could. Even still today, I find myself visiting this site to continue learning.

2. http://nshipster.com/ - This iOS blog is written by the creator of AFNetworking and has a lot of in depth articles on Cocoa, Objective-C and Swift topics that are commonly overlooked.

3. https://iosdevweekly.com/ - This newsletter is a great way to get a pulse on the iOS community. I've been able to learn about a lot of useful tools and libraries from this weekly email.
4. WWDC videos (all years) - The videos from the WWDC presentations are extremely useful, but can be quite advanced and dry sometimes. If you are unsure of what the best practice of doing something is, I would recommended these videos; It's also a great way to learn about the new things that were introduced in every new version of iOS. Also see ASCIIwwdc.

Hopefully this is a good enough start. There is also always the Apple docs (sometimes confusing and hard to find), Google and Stack Overflow. Good luck!

Productivity Tools

There are several tools that I use daily to help improve my productivity not only as a developer, but also as a regular computer user. I think it is important to share these types of tools, interesting tidbits, or libraries on a weekly basis because there are just so many new things being created all the time.

For example, I went to a few Ruby on Rails meetups and the first item on the agenda was always "Sharing of Tools and Tips"; here people would share new Ruby gems they had discovered or even share their experiences in solving a recent problem. Another great example is the Ruby Rogues Podcast where after every show, each speaker has picks that they share with the group; these picks aren't always technical, but it's a great way to be cognizant of what is out there. At my current job, we have tech talks every Thursday, but before we start, I reserve 10-15 minutes for sharing of tools and tips or just anything that people found interesting for the week. Usually atleast one thing of interest comes from it, and I think just that makes the entire exercise worth it.

Here are my picks:

1. BetterSnapTool

Ever need to compare two windows side by side, but find it a pain to resize and arrange them all the time? BetterSnapTool makes this simple, and can snap windows to any side you want with just a keyboard shortcut. You can also define custom hotspots where if you drag a window to it, it will resize that window to a custom size that you previously specified. This is a paid tool, but I know that there are probably similar tools that are free.

2. Alfred

Alfred allows you to do a lot of things from your fingertips. With a keyboard shortcut, it launches a spotlight like prompt that lets you search for files, launch applications, and even do arithmetic. I have to admit, I have been using this a lot less lately because the new spotlight in Mac OS X Yosemite is quite good. But I use to use this to launch all my development apps after logging in. You can also launch gmail straight from the prompt. I haven't explored this yet, but there is a PowerPack that you can purchase that allows you to define custom workflows. For example, I could define a development workflow, and it would allow me to launch all of my developer applications with one keyboard shortcut.

3. Timeout

I've built a lot of bad habits when using computers since I was young; I use to sit at the computer for 8-12+ hours straight and not take breaks. This has caused me a lot of eye and hand problems as I grew older, and I learned that it is REALLY important to take regular breaks from the computer. This tool helps remind me to take 10 second breaks, every 20 minutes, and 10 minute breaks every 60 minutes. This is all customizable as well. An important exercise I learned from my optometrist is the 20/20 rule, which is every 20 minutes, take a 20 second break and look at something atleast 20 feet away.

3. Evernote

A little more heavy weight than the default Notes app, but I like it because I can type up notes for a presentation on my laptop, and then access these same notes on my phone during the presentation. You can also categorize your notes in to notebooks, which has been useful because I create a lot of notes.

4. zsh and the oh-my-zsh plugin

I've mostly just used bash shell since it is the default on Mac OS X, but I recently decided to try zsh because I've heard a lot about it. There are a few nice features in zsh that bash doesn't have, but I wouldn't say anything ground breaking. To list a few:

• Inline glob expansion: For example, type rm *.pdf and then hit tab.
• Interactive path expansion: Type cd /u/l/b and hit tab.
• Customizable prompt configuration options.

What I enjoy the most is what the oh-my-zsh plugin offers. The plugin basically offers a nice way to manage your zsh configuration, but it comes a ton of built in plugins and themes. I mainly just use a theme and a git plugin (which can probably be done in bash too with aliases), but it is still definitely worth checking out. I am sure that I am only scratching the surface. Here is my zsh config if you would like to take a look.

5. Animated Tabs for Chrome

Lastly, I wanted to show an anti-productivity tool that I use quite often in Chrome. Usually I'll want to search for something, so I'll open a new Chrome tab and then I'll see some funny animated gif and then forget what I was doing and even what I was searching for. Although this interrupts my productivity during the day, sometimes it is nice to take a little break and laugh :).

Here are a few other tools that have been recommended to me by colleagues, but I just haven't had a chance to check them out yet:

• Fluid App
• Caffeine - Prevent computer from going in to screensaver or turning the display off on battery. This is useful for Skype calls or meetings where you're watching someone else's screen but not interacting with your computer.
• Dash - For local copies of documentation for various platforms and libraries. Its nice having a local and searchable copy.
• LastPass - For account management
• Pauses - An alternative to Timeout
• Flycut - Clipboard manager
• Filedart - Speedy file sharing

Coding Styles and Standards

One of the main reasons for having coding standards is to keep your code readable by everyone. By enforcing standards and formatting, the code base becomes consistent, and anyone can easily understand the structure of the code because he will be more familiar with what to expect. It is also very useful when a new developer joins the team because once he is familiar with the patterns, he will be able to easily read the existing code, which results in a more pleasant experience.

In this example, I will define coding standards for an iOS project (which uses Objective-C). We will take advantage of the fact that code formatting can be automated in XCode by using a plugin. The coding style that I chose is based on the Chromium style guide, but I made a few modifications, which can be found in the `.clang-format` file. Feel free to make changes as you see fit; All of the options are defined here LLVM Coding Standards.

Installation
1. Install Alcatraz, the package manager for XCode.
`curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/supermarin/Alcatraz/master/Scripts/install.sh | sh`
2. Select `Package Manager` from the `Window` menu and search for `ClangFormat` and install that plugin.
3. Select `Clang Format` from the `Edit` menu, and click on `File`. This will load formatting settings from the `.clang-format` file that is located in the repository.
4. When you want to format a file, go to the `Clang Format` menu and select `Format File in Focus`. You can also enable `Enable Format on Save` to have the plugin automatically format the file when you save it. You can also bind formatting to a keyboard shortcut, refer to the ClangFormat homepage for more options.

Additional Standards

The automatic code formatter does not implement all the standards we would like to follow. There are some standards that need to be enforced by the developer himself because they can't be automated. Please refer to https://github.com/paulsfds/objective-c-style-guide to see some examples.

Other Languages

Coding standards are universal and there exists some popular ones for other languages. I would also suggest searching on Google for popular standards for your favorite language. Also, many well established companies such as Google have their own coding standards that are available to the public. Here are a few popular ones to take a look at:

JavaScript

• Google JavaScript Style Guide
• JSHint

Ruby

• Ruby Style Guide
• thoughtbot

Objective-C

• Google Objective-C Style Guide
• New York Times
• raywenderlich.com

C++

• Google C++ Style Guide
• Chromium
• Mozilla
• LLVM

What are your favorite coding styles and standards?