App builders/Coders

Corpsmaide

Corpsmaide

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Corpsmaide
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Anyone here? I have an idea for an app. To the ones here who have developed apps, how'd you start?
 
I started programming in 1975 in Basic on a HP-2000A system. I went from that to beginning UNIX programming in 1977 at Johns Hopkins University, where I rose to system administrator and kernel hacker. I had summer jobs writing an inventory control system for Polk Audio, a ward and hospital information management system for the Johns Hopkins Medical School, and some additional UNIX work for the US Army. I then spent a year implementing source code control systems for Martin Marietta and working on real time databases for a government customer. I went back to the Army and worked on porting UNIX to a supercomputer, early Internet routers, and infrastructure, hosted the first Internet Engineering Task Force meeting. I spent a few years running the academic computing and networking at Rutgers University (across seven campuses). I spent 23 years building image analysis systems for the Intelligence and Medical communities. I wrote a few iPhone applications as well as being the Tech Reviewer for books on Objective C, Advanced iOS programs, and Apple's new Swift language.

That's how I started. Did you want to be a little more specific?
 
flyingron said:
I started programming in 1975 in Basic on a HP-2000A system. I went from that to beginning UNIX programming in 1977 at Johns Hopkins University, where I rose to system administrator and kernel hacker. I had summer jobs writing an inventory control system for Polk Audio, a ward and hospital information management system for the Johns Hopkins Medical School, and some additional UNIX work for the US Army. I then spent a year implementing source code control systems for Martin Marietta and working on real time databases for a government customer. I went back to the Army and worked on porting UNIX to a supercomputer, early Internet routers, and infrastructure, hosted the first Internet Engineering Task Force meeting. I spent a few years running the academic computing and networking at Rutgers University (across seven campuses). I spent 23 years building image analysis systems for the Intelligence and Medical communities. I wrote a few iPhone applications as well as being the Tech Reviewer for books on Objective C, Advanced iOS programs, and Apple's new Swift language.

That's how I started. Did you want to be a little more specific?
Click to expand...

I hate your Christmas newsletters too. ;)
 
Corpsmaide said:
Anyone here? I have an idea for an app. To the ones here who have developed apps, how'd you start?
Click to expand...

Which platform? What is the target market and are there enough numbers in the market to make it worth your while? There are "app generators" out there (software) that are good enough to prototype but the results will not be accepted by Apple for iTunes. Don't know about the Google side of the business.

The key is understanding event-driven software.

To do it right, is not trivial. If you're looking at the Apple side, the iOS website has excellent tutorials. Downside is you can only build iOS apps on a Mac running OS 10.8 or later. I picked up a used Mac mini to load latest & greatest software for development, leaving both the WinTel box and my current Mac as-is to avoid upgrade hassles.

All the iOS tutorials and software are free

https://developer.apple.com/

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/RoadMapiOS/

You only pay to register when you want to submit to iTunes.
 
You can pay a diva like me 5-6 figures for an app, or..

...play with some of the online toolsets that are out there now. If you want android/apple support, just write some HTML/JS/CSS wrapped up in Cordova.

Try this:

https://monaca.io/

It's free. You don't even need to install any editors or debuggers.

Use one of the jQuery mobile-based templates, stay out of the AngularJS ones.. that's for nerds who love to sniff their own brilliance.

If, after dabbling, you like it -- carry on, the rabbit-hole goes a long way down. If not... go back to the top and find a nerd to overpay to make these things :D

Tons of interesting video tutorials out there too. Lynda does a good set of them, but it's not free (I think there's a free trial) -- tons of others I've probably never encountered. Everyone and their dog wants to do a mobile app these days, so there are tons of resources available if you poke around for them.

Have fun :)

- Mike
 
I have 37 years in Physics and Computer Science at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center. My billing rate is $1600.00 an hour. What would you like me to code for you?
:-)
 
I really appreciate all the valuable information provided to me. I've got somewhere to start now. Thank you.
 
If you want to do iOS (iPhones/iPad), you can download XCode (The development environment) for free. If you've not done Objective C before, learn the new Swift language instead, it's much nicer. There are instructional videos as well as all the docs you need on the Apple site.

Once you want to start distributing applications, it costs you $99/year to gain access to the appstore.
 
I recently told a friend of mine that the hardest part about coming up with an app is developing it.
 
Actually, designing a well thought out and useful app is the hard part. The coding is pretty mechanical after that. There's tons of useful stuff both in the Apple Frameworks and available from third parties that will do most of the hard stuff. I wrote a little app that has all the FAA and CANADIAN registration information downloaded so that I could look of the year of manufacture of aircraft trying to sneak into Vintage at Oshkosh. Took me about a day (I already had a similar program written for the PC).
 
I never could figure out how to make money on a 'small app'. Between integration with SAP (and aimilar), httpaccess and mobile integration, all I can say is the best made plans eventually fill my trash can. As business models change, that old app has to be rewritten and the first people to figure that out is the support team..

Next time, I'm going to be a pure entrepreneur and sell out as quick as I can after product launch....
 
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I started USAF nav school in November 1974. One of the instructors told us that the last civilian navigator was about to retire from Flying Tigers.

I figured I better keep some kind of civilian skill. I'd programmed in college, so I got a $700 single board computer (Z80 process, 2K memory, modified small TV for a monitor, programed in hex). I kept working with small computers on my own time and a little bit at work and so was able to get a real programming job when I retired in 1994.

To give you a real answer, you need to spec out what you want your app and whatever corresponding server side processing that needs to happen.

You can then engage a commercial app development outfit. Figure paying the price for a good ASEL.

If that's a little pricy, you can go to a freelancer website like elance.com or odesk.com and hire someone from overseas. YMMV.

You could also hire an intern from your local college. This might work well if you can find the right kid. The best way to find an intern is at a job fair.

The actual coding is the hard part, but almost as hard is just managing the project, writing the specs, keeping track of the source code, testing, rinse repeat.
 
I went to one of Microsoft's MSDN events prior to Windows 8 being released when they were trying to get people to write Win8 apps. I brought my own desktop and created a simple timing app for athletes doing interval training. I don't think Win8 apps are the way to go except as an afterthought once you've developed an Android or iOS app.
 
Check out udacity.com


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