I want to learn software programming

Ok, so I know I can't just learn how to program iPhone apps, like it's something simple and self contained... I am about to get in way over my head... but... I'm up for it.

Where should I begin?

my colorblind cousin is working on an iphone app to match clothing colors for colorblind people and i think his foundation was c++; i like java but don't know how useful it would be

havne't done any iPhone things myself, but also planning to at some point.

Native iPhone language is Objective C, so either you'll need to learn that or use a wrapper of some sort. openFrameworks (a graphics coding library for C++ inspired by Processing) should be pretty good for that.

there's also a JavaScript Processing clone wrapper thingie which runs on iPhone natively apparently…? anyone tried that?

imo if you haven't coded anything yet start with Processing, period. you'll see results instantly, don't have to worry about compiling or classpaths or other confusing stuff, and is full fledged Java under the hood.

edit: Processing/Java will not run on iPhone, but it's a very beginner friendly environment for learning basic software concepts.

Processing is also generally awesome and it's a shame Apple do not allow Java on their precious toys. It works on Android devices though.

learn python first, it's an excellent language to pick up basic concepts in and very user-friendly

C

some old guy told me that CUDA is the way forward. But he was old.

cc -o wat wat.c

you will need the iphone SDK, matt. and believe me starting with the iphone SDK you won't know wtf you're doing. i wouldn't recommend objective-C as a first language either.

learn a language, then come back to the iphone shit.

Learn C then learn objective-c. If you want to program stuffs on the iphone, you'll have to learn objective-c. Objective-c is based on c. Actually any piece of c code can be copy/pasted into an objective-c project (you'll have to change a few type's name : String becomes NString and so on). Objective-c only brings the class+messages concept. But maybe that doesn't make sense to you.

Don't try understanding concepts too hard. Get you hands on some tutorials with some concrete examples.

Personally i tried learning c++ when i was 15, but i hadn't any real programming goal.

About a year ago I decided to learn Java, which is really cool because it's not platform dependant. Also the doc is very rich. Maybe you should try learning java since there is a program/IDE(=Integrated Development Environment) that converts java to iphone objective-c

Oh and if you want to program for the iphone, you'll need a mac (with xcode).

besides, what do you want to develop ?

C is the best way to start

"How to Think Like a Computer Scientist"

Python version:

http://openbookproject.net/thinkCSpy/index.html

Java version:

http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkapjava/

Pick one, read through it, play with each new concept as you are introduced to it. By the time you finish the book, you'll know how to program at the beginner level.

Keep learning and practicing for 5-10 years and you will become a pro. Like learning to play the piano, or becoming fluent in chinese, there's no shortcut, unfortunately.

So, the question is, do you want to spend several years of your life learning this?

If you know some HTML/CSS and a bit of Javascript you can get started that way. Even if you don't this book looks like a good intro.

http://building-iphone-apps.labs.oreilly.com/

...and if you learn C i would say only once you're once you're somewhat fluent in the language, try and have a read of the classic text

usually just called 'kerninghan and richie'

stay away from object oriented stuff for now (in other words i would say avoid C++ to begin with).