Making Apps
Since we're an app development team, I suppose we can have a post on creating apps. I'll break this up into two sections: (1) how apps are actually made (for people who don't know at all), and (2) my personal process and how things get done.
How are Apps made?
So, apps are great and all...but how are they actually made?
The very first thing you need to make an app is software. This software has to be able to actually make the app, after you give it your instructions. An analogy I'll give is if you want to write a book. Well, we're going to type it on our computer, but what are we going to type it in? We need a word processor so we can print it, or save it and email it to someone, or come back to and edit it later, right? But there are all kinds of word processors we can use, the most popular being Microsoft Word. Even though Word is saving the document and printing it out, we're the one actually doing the work picking fonts and organizing the pages, not to mention we're the ones actually writing the book. Similarly, we need certain software to create apps.
Different software does different things. There are two major kinds of operating systems: Apple's iOS, and Google's Android. We choose our software depending on the type of app we want to make, what we have available, and which operating system we want to build the app for.
Examples of app-making software are XCode (for Apple), Unity3D, Xamarin, [I think] Eclipse (for Android), etc.
Okay, here's the million dollar question: which software is best? Which software should you learn if you want to make apps? As my programming master told me: the software doesn't matter too much, they're just tools. The most important thing you need is coming up next.
(But if you really really want me to choose the software for you, Unity is best for 3D games (not just apps, but flash or video games) and has the best tutorials in my opinion. I'd choose Unity if you want to make games. XCode is also good because you know it'll always work since its directly from Apple.)
Different software does different things. There are two major kinds of operating systems: Apple's iOS, and Google's Android. We choose our software depending on the type of app we want to make, what we have available, and which operating system we want to build the app for.
Examples of app-making software are XCode (for Apple), Unity3D, Xamarin, [I think] Eclipse (for Android), etc.
Okay, here's the million dollar question: which software is best? Which software should you learn if you want to make apps? As my programming master told me: the software doesn't matter too much, they're just tools. The most important thing you need is coming up next.
(But if you really really want me to choose the software for you, Unity is best for 3D games (not just apps, but flash or video games) and has the best tutorials in my opinion. I'd choose Unity if you want to make games. XCode is also good because you know it'll always work since its directly from Apple.)
So we established that if you're sitting at your computer and you have the software downloaded, you can start making apps. Well...not quite. We still need to know something.
To make apps, you need to know a programming language to be able to speak to the software. A programming language, to those who don't know, is a special set of keywords and instructions you type into your computer to make it do something. Everything you see or do on your computer is because someone used a programming language to make it behave that way. That's why Bill Gates is the richest man on the world.
Your programming language must correspond with the software you use. If you want to use XCode, you need to know Objective-C or Swift. Unity3D needs JavaScript or C#. Xamarin uses C# I believe. Eclipse uses Java (I think, don't trust me on that).
(If there's enough of a requests, maybe I'll do some tutorials on programming languages.)
I'd suggest choosing a programming language before choosing the software. Just know that you can use C# and JavaScript outside of making apps, but Swift and Objective-C are only used for Apple.
To make apps, you need to know a programming language to be able to speak to the software. A programming language, to those who don't know, is a special set of keywords and instructions you type into your computer to make it do something. Everything you see or do on your computer is because someone used a programming language to make it behave that way. That's why Bill Gates is the richest man on the world.
Your programming language must correspond with the software you use. If you want to use XCode, you need to know Objective-C or Swift. Unity3D needs JavaScript or C#. Xamarin uses C# I believe. Eclipse uses Java (I think, don't trust me on that).
(If there's enough of a requests, maybe I'll do some tutorials on programming languages.)
I'd suggest choosing a programming language before choosing the software. Just know that you can use C# and JavaScript outside of making apps, but Swift and Objective-C are only used for Apple.
