Starting as a developer help

Question

Hello,
I am new to Apple Discussions and I am not sure if this is an appropriate question but I was wondering how to start as a developer.I don’t know the first thing about developing for Mac OSX or the iPhone, except that I need to download the Mac OSX developer SDK etc… I have downloaded both the Mac and iPhone developer software but have no idea where to go from this point. I have played around with the software but need to understand the basics of objective C etc. I am a absolute beginner with no knowledge of code or anything like that. Where do I go from here e.g. tutorials, books etc.
If it helps I live in Australia

Answer 1

G'day Mate, and welcome to the Dev Forum!
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... not sure if this is an appropriate question but I was wondering how to start as a developer.
Your question is certainly appropriate, and you came to the right place. In fact, the first and so-far only FAQ for this forum addresses your question, so you might want to look over [iPhone Developer Beginner Resource Guide|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2218661], a compilation of tips and valuable links provided by KT.
Where do I go from here e.g. tutorials, books etc.
The only thing better than books at this point would be a class in basic programming concepts, such as you might find at the nearest college. The ideal class would be described something like "Introduction to Programming: Basic concepts including operators, loops, functions and pointers using the "C" language". In fact your first book should also include a similar description on the back cover. In any case, your first priority should be learning to program. Your first language is of secondary importance. Once you have the basic concepts, learning new languages will be easy (Exception: avoid Microsoft-specific languages such as Visual Basic or C#).
That said, the best choice of a first language would be C, and there are no shortage of books that teach programming with C. You should also attempt to find a book and/or college course that teaches C without C++. As soon as you're comfortable with C, you'll want to learn Objective-C. C++ and Obj-C are both branches of C, but they're not complimentary. I.e., time spent learning C++ won't shorten the time to learn Obj-C, and may lengthen it.
Obj-C is the language of "Cocoa", which is the preferred app programming interface (API) for new OS X apps, and is required for native iPhone apps.
At some point, you'll be ready for a book like +Cocoa Programming for Mac(R) OS X (3rd Edition)+ by Aaron Hillegass, or +Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK+ by Jeff LaMarche and David Mark. You might get one of those books right away, and read the first couple chapters. Either book is so good some students have been known to pick up both C and Obj-C as they progressed through the chapters. But if that learning curve is too steep, just go back to basic programming with C until either Hillegass or LaMarche and Mark becomes easy.
Note that I haven't yet touched on the wealth of info available at the Mac and/or iPhone Dev Centers online. That's because you should get at least several chapters into one of the above books before the resources in the Dev Center will start to make sense. After that, you'll want to live there. Just don't move there before you've got some basic programming skills and have done some simple Cocoa projects from one of your books.
Hope that helps you get started!
\- Ray