Reddit mentions of Programming in Objective-C, Third Edition (Developer's Library)

You can dive right into Objective C, I was only vaguely familiar with C and I've published a few apps without any problems. However, if you're intent on learning C pick up 'The C Programming Language' (K&R), not only the best C programming book, but one of the best programming books ever written.

Objective C books, I recommend one of the two or both books,
'Programming in Objective C 3rd edition' or
'Objective C: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide'

Both of these books are excellent resources for learning and I keep them close by whenever I have a question.

In terms of learning iOS development. I recommend going into iTunes U and downloading the latest Stanford University iPhone development course. I believe Winter 10 is the newest, follow along those classes and the class website, treat it like a real class, do the homework and all the assignments. There is no text book for the class, but this other book by Big Nerd Ranch, 'iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Way' is totally awesome.

After these classes and books you should have a great foundation for iOS development. Once you feel comfortable with everything and have an app or two under your belt, download Madison Technical College's Advanced iPhone Development course videos from iTunes U and Apple's own WWDC Session Videos.

Each MTC video is about 3 hours, watch them in chunks. The professor, Brad Larson is one of the best iPhone developers out there and in my opinion is one the best contributors to the community, (see his posts on stack overflow).

Lastly, check out www.raywenderlich.com. My personal favorite iPhone development website. It's updated every Monday, Wednesday, Friday with great technical tutorials that are funny and educational.

Best of luck to you and welcome to iOS development :-D.

You're going to need to understand quite a few things to pull that off. If you can work through http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321711394/ref=mp_bxgy_p_dp_y and http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/143023024X and you'll be well on your way!

My stock suggestions:

1. the Big Nerd Ranch book on iPhone/iOS programming (called iPhone in the 1st edition, iOS in the second... here's a link to the second edition: http://amzn.com/0321773772).
   
   
2. the Developing Apps for iOS class on iTunes U (http://is.gd/CPqCvY)
   
   
3. if you have never programmed in a C-like language before, I have heard that "Programming in Objective-C" is a good book, though I haven't read it myself (http://amzn.com/0321711394)

I'm not aware of many free resources to learn Objective-C other than Apple's reference to Objective-C.

If you are new to programming I would highly recommend you check out Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan. Another good introduction is Beginning Mac Programming by Tim Isted.

A fair amount of iOS devs I know say that starting with a background in C can definitely help you in the long run, so I'd highly recommend K&R for that.

After you're done with that, you're definitely going to want to learn the Cocoa API along side Objective-C, and Hillegass does that quite nicely. Once you're familiar with that, this book will help you familiarize yourself with the language further.

Bonus round dice roll:

If you want to make a game, I recommend learning some opengl.

> (assume i have programming background in javascript/web front end.)

Um, are you sure you're ready to jump into iOS development?

Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, it doesn't seem like you have any C or OOP (like Java) programming experience. You'll definitely want to be at least comfortable with C-like syntax and message-passing, inheritance and objects, etc.

Actually, I'll have you answer that for yourself. Watch the first lecture in the iOS dev series from Stanford on iTunes. Around minute 11 the professor goes over what concepts you need to understand in order to be able to follow along with the course. If you don't understand all of the concepts listed, then you aren't ready yet.

Also, you've got to have a Mac. Have at least a Mac Mini (which are the cheapest Macs you can get refurb'd / used).

Here's what I would do assuming I am correct about your programming experience:

1. Learn C on the Mac.

It's for beginners, and will go over the basics of C. Objective-C, the programming language for iOS, is a strict superset of C, so they share a lot of syntax.

1.a The C Programming Language (recommended)

This one isn't for beginners, and is a bit stale, but is the de facto book for learning all of the intricacies of C. While it isn't absolutely necessary, the better you understand C (including pointers, memory, etc.), the easier time you'll have with iOS dev. I absolutely recommend going through it in its entirety, though this isn't necessary. It'll also be good to know C in the future if you plan to pursue software development.

2. Programming in Objective-C

This will teach you Objective-C, related OOP, and using XCode 4.

3. Beginning iPhone 4 Development

This will probably rehash some stuff related to Objective-C and XCode, but for the most part is a great introduction to iPhone development.

Use this book in tandem with the Stanford lecture series. Read the first few chapters, watch the first 2 lectures, do the homework exercises as if you were in the course along with the examples from the book, and just go from there. There might be some redundancy, but I think the combination of reading, listening, and doing will really help you understand the material.

If you need short tutorial refreshers at any point, Cocoa Dev Central is a great resource.

From there, you should be able to start making your own apps, and just use Google, StackOverflow, and http://developer.apple.com/ for all of your questions not previously answered or if you get stuck.

As you go through the process of learning all of these new programming concepts, try to develop ideas for what apps you want to develop. As you learn more, try to piece together how you would accomplish certain aspects of the ideas, and if you can, maybe even code the bits (like certain functions) you can.

There are no set milestones.. it's a gradual process of learning and getting better at programming and iOS development. Your goal should be to just create your own working app entirely based of your own ideas and work.

Programming in Objective C (Amazon link) is pretty well thought of as the bible for Objective C programming (the language iPhone apps are written in). I'm making the assumption you're talking iPhone here. Once you've gone through that book, which actually doesn't take a whole lot of time, you can watch the Stanford University iTunes courses on Objective C and iOS development. They're pretty great. If you still want more hands-on learning, the Big Nerd Ranch guide is awesome. It is screenshotted the whole way through and basically tells you to drag this here, click this, etc. to guide you through the creation of some programs.

this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Objective-C-Edition-Developers-Library/dp/0321711394/ref=pd_sim_b_1


and this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Design-Patterns-Erik-Buck/dp/0321535022/ref=pd_sim_b_7


and this guy:

http://www.raywenderlich.com/