Ray Wenderlich Course Part 1 (up to lesson 16)

Here we go - a new course! I WILL come back to Angela's - I have not stopped it for any negative reasons whatsoever. I just feel at this point, it's best to get some more experience at a lower level before pushing on. My plan is to get to a similar point with Ray's course, then either switch back to Angela (if super confident) or back to Treehouse (safer option). Either way, I feel like I understand much more of the information and can apply it more readily now. So, here we go with Ray's course!

Registering as an App Developer 

I'm going to leave this - for now. It cost $99 a year. I will look into this once I am confident to make apps regularly!

legalzoom.com - Ray says there is some information on here that can be useful.

https://developer.apple.com - the main website for app development. I've logged onto this before and I have checked it works!

*I've skimmed through some of these early lessons as they're about downloading Xcode, general info etc.

Good, Ray mentions challenges! These will be littered throughout the course. Some links to the course book too, which I have. Excellent!

Making a Programming To Do List




So this is what we will be making!

Challenge - here is the 'to do' list of what is needed:

• A text label box with a number target
• Number target needs to be randomised between 1 and 100
• A slider from 1 to 100
• A target symbol that moves from left to right
• A 'hit me' button
• A 'restart' button
• A score label
• A round label
• An information icon that shows information
• A brown background with target artistry

That's quite a lot!


Well I pretty much got al of these! Forgot to say I need to actually calculate the score/round.

This is a really good idea - I will do this from now on for each app!

Buttons and Actions

OK, interesting. Different to every way so far I've seen it, Ray type out the code for the button:

 @IBAction func showAlert() {

        

        print("Hi!")

    }

THEN, he connects the button directly to the ViewController - clicking and dragging straight onto this! I prefer the other way if I'm honest. But good to see his way!

Alerts

   @IBAction func showAlert() {

        

        let alert = UIAlertController(title: "Hello guys!", message: "First app with Ray!", preferredStyle: .alert)

        

        let action = UIAlertAction(title: "Cool!", style: .default, handler: nil)

        

        alert.addAction(action)

        

        present(alert, animated: true, completion: nil)

    }

    

So ALL of this has been done by code! Interesting and a bit different. To be honest, if I were a complete rookie then I would be massively confused at this point. Ray says this does not matter - it is all about learning via repetition...

Hmm, I disagree! I would not have started with something so abstract so soon, or at least broken it down so it could be made sense of!

Solving Problems

This is straightforward - how Xcode can figure out typos. Case sensitive to look out for too. Missing parenthesises, curly braces etc. 

Where to put code - e.g. after the last curly brace. 

Renaming objects - you can't just do this unless you change it on the attributes inspector too. 

Connections - I've had this issue before! Make sure any old ones/ones with previous names are removed. 

Challenge - Connecting Actions

Ray then shows a 'to-do' list for this, but to be honest, I'd rather do it without!

Easy! :)

How does an App Work?

Most of the time, the app isn't doing anything! It is waiting for certain events to then do something!

That is what is actually happening! Lots of useful stuff here. 

Landscape vs Portrait

You can have 2 or 3 pixels per point- Angela covered this before.

So with iOS we work with points rather than pixels. 

Developers work with points, designers work with pixels. 

OK, so this app is ONLY for landscape! A few simple settings changed for this. 

Challenge - Basic Controls

So this is what we need:

Again, easy enough!

Only thing I could not find was the 'info' icon. 

*I had to change the slider values. 

*The info light was under style - I tried but missed this!

A decent start! To be honest, I don't agree with the idea of typing out the code for the button, but I do see how the alert options can be integrated - that was useful. 

Other top takeaways:

• Use of the slider and the values
• Use of the 'info' icon
• Alternative way of connecting objects to the VC
• Developers use points whereas designers use pixels
• Creating a 'to do' list for any app - great idea!