How long does it take to learn objective c/iPhone sdk coming from an object oriented PHP background?

Question

I know it's not an easy question to answer, but a client of mine came to me and asked if I'd be interested in a "get paid to learn objective-c and iPhone development" project before they go to another developer.

I come from a a web background and my primary languages is PHP. I consider myself to be at expert level. I develop using Zend Framework and understand core object oriented principles & design patterns. I'm also moderately familiar with messaging.

Has anyone made the leap coming from a similar background? If so, what were some of the hurdles and about how long did it take to be ready for developing a production ready app?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Your PHP background will probably not be much use to you at all. I would try not to think of Cocoa programming in those terms at all, because it can lead to confusion and frustration when you assume one language and framework works like another language and framework. If you've learned good programming practices in your time as a PHP developer (e.g. well-factored code, avoiding unnecessary coupling, following conventions), those can be transferred. Otherwise, you're basically learning fresh.

On the plus side, though, Objective-C and the iPhone SDK are not generally very hard to learn. How long it takes is a personal question more than a question of background, but I would expect a couple of days to get the basics down, maybe a few weeks to feel comfortable.

Big Nerd Ranch offers a boot camp for learning iPhone development. They're a bit pricey, but well-respected in the Cocoa community for people who want to get a good education fast. (And I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just for the record.)

Answer 2

Get a copy of this book:

Head First iPhone Development

As long as the app you need to make is fairly simple, I think you stand a good shot if you can really focus on the book, work your way through it, and then immediately work on the app.

Answer 3

I had experience of development in C++ (qt, vcl) 6 years and last spring, when Apple was announced iphone os 3.0, I with my friends decided to try ours hand at a new arena. I'm not English speaking and I am quite difficult to understand the documentation, which is essential in the study. Fortunately, the documentation in the SDK iPhone OS is great and is simple enough. After 2 weeks I wrote a simple program - Resources Monitor of Iphone. Another 2 weeks later was ready news aggregator (on request). A month later - the program showing exchange rates. The hardest part for me was to understand how to work with the memory - the garbage collector in iPhone OS does not present. All the rest - as in all programming languages - comes through experience and reading the documentation. Plus, this resource also helps in difficult cases:)