I'm currently in a scholarship program that teaches iPhone dev. I have several years of experience in programming, but I really wanted the stipend. Also, it couldn't hurt to become more acquainted with a popular market.

The course assumed no previous programming experience, so I thought boredom was inevitable. Truth is, I actually ended up angry. The iPhone needed a micro-managed developer profile and $100 from anyone who wanted to develop on [only] their products. Ok, a solid design is always picky about the data it works with. No big deal... right?

The professor preached naive half-truths such as "the computer is always right, and you are always wrong." We had "Apple State Representatives" come into class and advertise products. The class is given the impression that we need Apple to solve problems, not a compiler and gray matter.

The information we are being given is useless. The instructor mentioned that we needed to understand the concept of programming, when 2% of the material had anything to do with it. 20% had to do with syntax, and the rest was about Apple.

Dumbed down material can be a problem to begin with. When companies [competitors] that promote simplicity take over a lesson plan, what lies in the future for the students that listen?

[Edited by - zyrolasting on June 21, 2010 9:42:00 PM]

Quote: Original post by zyrolasting—from your own blog:

As of the time of this writing, I have one week left in the program. We are taking an iPhone programming course. My instructor told us that Apple requires us to register before we can even start developing on the iPhone. We can only work on Macs, and can only deploy on Apple devices that are registered in a provisioning profile. We must also submit security certificates for each Mac that works for them. You must also shell out $100 and everything you develop from that point on must be approved by Apple for resale. What the hell?

Seriously? You only just found out how Apple's development kits work? Is Google something that only happened to other people? Did you genuinely fail to do ANY RESEARCH WHATSOEVER into Apple and iPhone development? This is NOT news. Why the hell are you even raising an eyebrow over this, let alone whining about it?


Your blog post is yet another an ill-informed "I hate Apple!" rant written from the perspective of an insufferable ignoramus who thinks he knows everything.


Newflash: Apple are a design boutique company who sell hardware. Nothing more. They have never made a secret of this. Nor is there any secret to their general success over the past decade or so.

That's "hardware".

Not "software". To Apple, software is just another component. It's not special. It's just one of many pieces of the jigsaw. Apple don't make much (if any) profit from App sales, music sales, video rentals, etc. iTunes and OS X are just a means to an end: selling more Apple-branded hardware.

Apple are not developer-centric, like Microsoft. They're not hacker-centric like Linux and the FSF movement. They're user-centric. And doesn't it just burn to find yourself brutally kicked off the top of the entitlement heap most developers have been taking for granted!

You don't like Apple's way. So? Develop for some other platform then. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Apple won't shed a tear. They have plenty of developers ready and willing to code for their hardware already, and I don't see them complaining too hard about the money they're making.

You have a choice here: develop for Apple. Develop for Android. Develop for Symbian. Develop for (snigger) MeeGo. Develop for anything you damned well please. There's nothing "evil" going on. Apple just don't happen to agree with your philosophy. Sucks to be you, I guess.


Either grow the hell up, or get a job as a tabloid journalist.

Quote: They're user-centric.

What isn't? One of my clients wants a website where the users are contractors. As a result, a lot of technical information is shown. You could say that the site was contractor-centric, but they are still users. I guess you could say that the course I was in was developer-centric, and I was a user of xCode.

Quote: You have a choice here: develop for Apple. Develop for Android. Develop for Symbian. Develop for (snigger) MeeGo.

I know. I'll develop on anything I need to in order to get a job done. When did I say I would never work with Apple or any of it's devices?

Quote: Your blog post is yet another an ill-informed "I hate Apple!" rant written from the perspective of an insufferable ignoramus who thinks he knows everything

I don't have anything against Apple. Whenever you see me say things like "Apple scares me" or something just sucks, I do not assert those statements as absolutes. I know better than that, and assigning meaning to my words will only take this thread in a bad direction. You are making three times as many assumptions as you are claiming I am. Your mini-crusade actually seems to be attacking arguments I've never even made.

I'm asking why development courses are further dumbing down material, and Apple gave me a bad experience and therefore served as a good example. Well, I can't blame Apple themselves for that, but I expected to learn about developing on the iPhone. I ended up learning more about the company that makes it. I thought that was a problem, since the course advertised instruction in programming concepts. False advertising.

There is no reason to get all bent out of shape because I do not agree with corporate philosophies.

[Edited by - zyrolasting on June 20, 2010 1:49:51 PM]

The provisioning profile stuff sucks but that's the sort of thing you spend an hour or two working out when you first do it and then you just renew them when they run out. Its not that much of a bother in the long run.

So you have to pay $100 a year? If you want to host a website with a decent company you probably pay that (or more) a year. It's peanuts really. In fact if you want to buy Visual Studio Pro that'll set you back $800 and they upgrade that every 3 - 4 years so you actually end up paying more to stay up to date with Microsofts development tool chain. At least you get the IDE, all the compilers, debuggers, excellent debugging software (Instruments has no parallel on any platform) for free.

Having said that if you don't want to test your software on actual iPhone hardware you don't need to pay a penny you can just use the iPhone simulator (included with the iPhone SDK) to learn on for free.

As for the programming environment I think it is actually one of the best out there. If you don't like Objective-C (I can understand if you don't) you can do the vast majority of your iPhone programming in C and then just simply do the GUI stuff in Objective-C.

Seriously though, whats wrong with learning this stuff yourself? Apples dev documentation is some of the best around and is free to access for both the Mac and iPhone / iPod / iPad. Just register for a free developer account.

Quote: Original post by zyrolasting
Dumbed down material can be a problem to begin with. When companies [competitors] that promote simplicity take over a lesson plan, what lies in the future for the students that listen?

We're already in that future. Do you know what Computer Science looked like before it became a Java vocational program?

Quote: Seriously though, whats wrong with learning this stuff yourself?
...
Having said that if you don't want to test your software on actual iPhone hardware you don't need to pay a penny you can just use the iPhone simulator (included with the iPhone SDK) to learn on for free.

Let's clear the air here: I don't have any problem with the material. I already am familiar with the Obj-C syntax from a night of reading. Let's try not to make this about me.

All I'm saying is that the course promised material that I think is key for some students, and people who work for Apple did not deliver it. They instead promoted the company. To me, that's an issue.

Quote: So you have to pay $100 a year? If you want to host a website with a decent company you probably pay that (or more) a year.

Meh, I think that it's tough to compare development freedoms on a website to select products.

Quote: We're already in that future. Do you know what Computer Science looked like before it became a Java vocational program?

...Touche.

Disclosure: I say this as someone who has an iPhone and thinks it's awesome.

Quote: Original post by Cromulent
As for the programming environment I think it is actually one of the best out there. If you don't like Objective-C (I can understand if you don't) you can do the vast majority of your iPhone programming in C and then just simply do the GUI stuff in Objective-C.

Are you joking? If I don't want to use Objective-C, I can use C? That's not exactly an improvement.

I don't have an issue with Apple charging for the SDK/developers' programme, simply because it only encourages the serious and the capable. Same goes for the XNA Creators Club on the Xbox 360.

If you've got an unrestricted development platform, alongside an unrestricted sales/delivery platform, then you're going to invariably end up with swathes of half baked rubbish; annoying at best, dangerous at worst - what if someone's app bricks your phone or steals your data?

Quote: Original post by ChaosEngine
Are you joking? If I don't want to use Objective-C, I can use C? That's not exactly an improvement.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. Personally I love C.

If C++ is more your thing you could use that I guess instead of C, although I'd rather stab myself in the eye and BBQ my own testes than use that.

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
I don't have an issue with Apple charging for the SDK/developers' programme, simply because it only encourages the serious and the capable. Same goes for the XNA Creators Club on the Xbox 360.

If you've got an unrestricted development platform, alongside an unrestricted sales/delivery platform, then you're going to invariably end up with swathes of half baked rubbish; annoying at best, dangerous at worst - what if someone's app bricks your phone or steals your data?

The difference between Apple and Microsoft here is that with Microsoft, you can develop without paying and only pay when you want to release. With Apple, you must pay to even develop.

I don't mind paying to release on a platforms "official" channel - it makes sense. However, I prefer if the platform provides an unofficial channel - and that I don't need to pay to try out the technology before building a serious piece of work in it.