App-o-Mat

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Want to make an iOS App? Start with Swift

The biggest obstacle I see in new app developers is that they struggle with the basics.

Before you learn about UIViewController, UITableViewDataSource, and NSManagedObject, you need to fully understand let. var, enum, struct, if, for in, case let, and guard let.

So, if you know no Swift at all and don't know a similar programming language, start with Apple's Swift Programming Language book and Swift playgrounds (on the iPad or in Xcode on a Mac). Learn how to write extremely simple functions and then small sets of structs/classes that work together.

In Apple's book, I would say to at least get through these chapters

1. The Basics: If you are brand new, give it read, but realize that some of the topics might be beyond your grasp right now. Come back to it periodically.
2. Basic Operators
3. Strings and Characters
4. Collection Types
5. Control Flow
6. Functions
7. Closures
8. Enumeration
9. Structures and Classes
10. Properties
11. Methods

This is enough to get started. But even the simplest real app is going to have Optional Chaining, Inheritance, and Protocols. If you run into something you haven't seen yet, find the chapter where it is discussed.

Then, once you capable of writing small functions on your own, take a look at simple step-by-step app tutorials.

If this sounds good, I wrote up exercises for each chapter of the Swift Programming Language Book.

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