Objective-C 2 Day (or 4-Evening) Primer
Kickstarting the Switch From Another Language
Tap-Quiz
How do I send a message with multiple arguments?
You precede each arg with a label and a colon. The labels are actually part of the selector (method name).
Day 1
The Essentials
The first half of the course is about mapping the essential concepts in programming to the specifics in Objective-C. Datatypes, conditional statements and loops are used to build an command-line invoice-style app that retrieves product/price data via HTTP , prints it to the console and calculates the total price.
When taught in the evening, these topics cover sessions 1 & 2.
- Xcode
- Compiler Preferences
- Console Printing
- Working with NSString & NSNumber classes
- Primitive Variables
- For-Each Loops
- NSArrays
- Associative Arrays (NSDictionary)
- Data Access over the Network
- Key Value Coding
- NSError
- NSAssert
- Messaging Syntax
- Memory Management Part #1
Day 2
Dynamism
Part 2 of the course extends our Invoice application by sorting and filtering the contents of the remotely-loaded array. We use Objective-C dynamic dispatch to change the methods that are used depending on the kind of product loaded, by encoding the selector in the remote file. To learn about Delegation, we rig up a simple iPhone app that presents our invoice data in a list.
When taught in the evening, these topics cover sessions 3 & 4.
- Memory Management Part 2
- Filtering with NSPredicates
- Sorting using NSSortDescriptors
- Class Creation
- Class Introspection
- SEL Variable Type
- Implicit Arguments to Obj-C Method Dispatches
- String-Conversion of Selectors & Class
- Categories
- Protocols & Delegates
What's Covered
We learn the best practices for coding with the Objective-C language.
Why do I need this?
Objective-C is used to write native apps for iPod, iPhone, iPad (iOS) and the Mac, using Apple's Developer Tools, including Xcode.
How does this course compare with the 5-day version?
The Objective-C 5 Day Bootcamp is for people who have never programmed before, while this course is for people who already know a language. The bootcamp goes into detail about what variables and functions are, and what boolean operations are. This course assumes you already know about variables, functions, booleans and so-forth, so we focus on things that are different with Objective-C.
I'm already a coder in $someOtherLanguage. Why do I need this?
People who can already program in another language will be able to pick up Objective-C, sure. With this course, you'll pick it up in two days and then can hit the ground running with Cocoa (Mac) and Cocoa Touch (iOS) programming. We've found that programmers who try to teach themselves Objective-C tend to try to do with it exactly the same things they do in their other language, because they don't know what Objective-C has that their other language doesn't. When you take the course, you're essentially "forced" to consider concepts like Categories, Delegation, KVC and manual memory management, things that are often not found in other popular languages.
I'm a Java programmer. What's this about manual memory management?
You've had it easy, over in Java, with your built-in garbage collection. While the Objective-C 2.0 runtime introduced garbage collection in 2007, it's disabled on the iOS platform. You need to manage memory yourself. We'll show you how.
Are there books or anything else with this course?
You can keep the sample projects, and if you document them as you go along, you'll have some notes in those. Apple provides a free Guide to The Objective-C 2.0 Programming Language (PDF link).
on Objective-C
need exp. with another language
will call them today!
1 (902) 444 4225 ask for Leslie
Instructor Bio
Woody spends about as much time teaching each week as he does coding. It has been a passion for over twenty years. His focus is presently on internal corporate-style productivity apps. Prior to working for Splice, he was the product designer at a software start-up that focused in broadcast automation solutions.
Woody received his indoctrination to Cocoa and Objective-C in 2005 and has been teaching it since 2008. He is presently the co-chair of the Atlantic CocoaHeads Chapter.
Student Case Studies: Glen C., Multimedia Specialist at Memorial University, NL
"Taking the Objective-C course with Woody was fantastic. He was friendly, very knowledgeable, and conveyed key elements of the course with ease… His approach reflected practical, real-world application development… I would highly recommend this course to anyone interested in iOS development!
Read More Testimonials