So I’ve been back from the Big Nerd Ranch for a couple of days now, and I’ve had time to reacquaint myself with real life. I’m able to look back on all of last week with hindsight now, and connect some dots. I definitely learned a ton in that class. If I had needed to think of anything besides programming—even where to eat for dinner—there’s no way I would have retained half of that information. I guess when they drag you out to the middle of the woods for a week, they know what they’re doing—especially after more than ten years of doing it!
They sent us all away with all of our class materials, which will prove to be invaluable, I’m sure. All of the exercises we did and all of the slides from the instructors’ presentations are included in there, along with another book: Learn Objective-C on the Mac by Mark Dalrymple and Scott Knaster. It’s not quite as extensive as the book by Stephen Kochan (disclaimer: I haven’t completed either book yet, so who’s to say for sure?), but the writers have different styles, and I find this one much easier to read. I really appreciate having both books at hand when I’m coding.
My favorite part of the week, surprisingly, was learning memory management. Not the actual time we spent on it, but the moment where I started to get it. All of a sudden, it just clicked for me. Of course, this happened after all the lectures and exercises on it. It happened during one of the later exercises, where we were just putting it into practice but focusing on a completely different feature. At that moment it ceased to be a hurdle to jump over every time I wrote a line of code.
I really loved my week at the ranch, and I wish I could have stayed for another. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn one of the subjects they teach. I will be back again as soon as it’s financially possible! The only decision will be what to learn next… Cocoa, perhaps? It will have to be something my husband wants to learn, too, because I will not let him miss the chance to go!
I do have some ideas for apps, one of which I’m going to start working on right away. I’m also working on a specific app for Brave New Media, and it’s actually quite the undertaking. I’ll definitely be sharing as much as I can without giving too much away. Stay tuned!
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Thank you, Alison, for capturing the essence of what the week at Big Nerd Ranch was all about on your blog. Great job! It was great being a student with you and I look forward to seeing your apps in the store.
Alison,
I’m going myself to the class at the end of this month, and I’ve really enjoyed reading your day-by-day recaps.
You never did, though, come back and add a follow-up to this blog.
What’s your take of the class now 6 months out? Was it worth the money? Did it really give your iPhone development rocket boosters? I’m currently working on an iPhone app and I’m really struggling with some of the foreign concepts (I’m a .NET guy at the core). Will this class give me the understanding to come back as an iPhone Programming God?
Thanks!
p.s. If you don’t want to write a whole new article, would you please send me an email with answers to my questions?
Thanks!
Mike
Hi Mike! I’m so excited for you going to the class!
To answer your questions, I unfortunately haven’t gotten too much of a chance to put my new iPhone skills to use. I’ve played around a little bit in my spare time, but I haven’t had the time to fully develop an app yet. That being said, I still feel more than capable of doing so. Being sent home with all the class materials helps a TON—any time I feel like I’m getting rusty, I just pull out the workbooks and go through one or two of the exercises again.
It’s definitely worth the money (especially the 7-day class, if you don’t already know Objective-C). I went from knowing absolutely nothing about iPhone programming to knowing more than enough to make a great app in just a week. One of these days I’ll finally get around to releasing an app!
My favorite thing I took away from this class was the fact that I made 18 new friends in the development world. You’ll be spending a week surrounded by people just as passionate about programming as you are, and they come from all sorts of careers and backgrounds (it sounds cheesy, but it’s so awesome).
If you have any more questions, just let me know. I’d be happy to talk more about the class over iChat or email if you want to know more. Thanks!
Great blog on the BNR experience! I am considering going to BNR for the iPhone training, but I have a question that I need answered first:
How imperative is it that I know another object-oriented language prior to taking the iPhone course?
I am a relative noob when it comes to coding, but I do have two (very basic) apps that I have managed to cobble together and publish on the app store using what I have learned online and in a couple of books. Any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks Bishop!
To answer your question: I had object-oriented language experience before I went, but I new nothing of Objective-C, and there were still some OO concepts I didn’t have a firm handle on before the class.
I took the Beginning iPhone Bootcamp course, which spends the first two days covering Objective-C from the ground up. It’s a lot to handle, but as long as you have some programming experience (OO or not), you can make it through those two days and then understand Objective-C basics pretty well.
I definitely recommend that you take the Beginning course so you get those extra two days on Objective-C. Without that, I would have been completely lost the rest of the week.
Hi Bishop – Did you end up going to the iPhone bootcamp? How did it go?
Alison,
Thanks for sharing your experience. Many times you hear about training and wonder if it’s worth the money. You helped illuminate the answer for me. I recently switched from PCs to a old (1st gen) Macbook Pro and love it. I’m a VoIP/Asterisk guy and now I’m starting to learn coding for the iPhone. Books are nice, but real face to face learning with people who are passionate and knowledgeable is the best. You proved it again.
Dan
Alison,
It’s nice to see your experience in BNR. I was wondering what would be like to get a training in BNR.
I have a question very similar to Mike. BNR recently released the book about iphone programming:
http://www.bignerdranch.com/book/iphone_programming_the_big_nerd_ranch_guide
Based on your blog and course syllabus in BNR web site, this book has very similar content to your iphone training portion. Do you think it is still worth it to go to training even after you finish the book? Of course, nothing beats from having face to face interaction with actual authors. However, training also has big price tag as well.
What do you think about the difference in your learning if similar material was given to you in terms of book format? I just want to know your thought on this.
Thanks!
Young
Hi Young,
I understand your dilemma—the BNR does have a high price tag, and the book is based on the course itself. I would say that the experience of actually being there was worth every penny. However, you can always buy the book, see how you do with it, and then make the decision after that. If the book teaches you enough that you get to make the app you want, then maybe you can use the earnings from your first app to pay for the BNR!
Beyond the learning, the BNR was an awesome networking opportunity. Being with 17 other people in the same boat as you means you end the week with 17 new people to turn to when you have questions or ideas about iPhone programming. I still get plenty of emails from the people in my class who want to share their new app with everyone, who have a programming problem they can’t figure out, or who have an idea for a new app and want some feedback.
Long story short: I’d buy the book first and work through it, then I’d sign up for the class (whether it’s a week after you finish the book, or a year later). There’s so much material they cover in that week that it would be really helpful to read their book first anyway.
Good luck! Let me know how it goes!
-Alison
Alison,
Thanks for your reply! You got really good point about networking. True, it might be as important as training itself. I’ll keep that in my mind. The book is pretty good. I am going through chapter by chapter now. It is very different experience since my job is very different environment. I am working with embedded system in straight C. No GUI, of course not ..
I am currently going though chpater 4 on the book. So far so good.. Just like what you suggested, I will try to finish this book by myself to see how far I can make it w/o help. Thanks again for sharing your thought! It was very helpful.
Yeah, I’ll let you know how my study (and traing if I ended up going there ) goes…
Young