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copied!<p>There are a lot of questions here about getting started with Cocoa on the iPhone and Mac, listing many great resources:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/332039/getting-started-with-iphone-development">"Getting Started With iPhone Development"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1109043/starting-iphone-development">"Starting iPhone Development"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1939/howto-articles-for-iphone-development-objective-c">"Howto articles for iPhone development, Objective C"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/405568/are-you-doing-iphone-development-how-do-you-learn">"Are you doing iPhone development? How do you learn?"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/232567/best-cocoa-mac-os-x-programming-blogs">"Best Cocoa/Mac OS X programming blogs?"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7571/cocoa-and-objective-c-resources">"Cocoa and Objective-C resources?"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67875/good-ways-to-learn-cocoa">"Good ways to Learn Cocoa?"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51971/can-anyone-recommend-a-complete-objc-cocoa-or-cocoa-touch-tutorial">"Can anyone recommend a complete ObjC/Cocoa or Cocoa-Touch tutorial?"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/461426/what-are-some-of-the-best-online-resources-for-learning-objective-c">"What are some of the best online resources for learning Objective-C?"</a></li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/200850/are-there-any-open-source-iphone-applications-around">"Are there any Open-source iPhone applications around?"</a></li> </ul> <p>From my own personal experience, it took me six months before I felt comfortable with Cocoa, but that was years ago when I was only tinkering with it part-time. Since then, we've moved all of our robotic control software to Cocoa and the Mac, so it's what I now do full-time. Adjusting to the iPhone was a pretty quick process, taking me three weeks of nights and weekends to produce my first application, which has been on the App Store since launch.</p> <p>In addition to all the resources in the questions listed above, I highly recommend reading Apple's <a href="http://developer.apple.com/iPhone/library/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/Introduction/Introduction.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">iPhone Human Interface Guidelines</a> cover-to-cover. They don't provide hard-and-fast rules, but they do explain the overall UI design of the platform and the reasons behind why things are done the way they are. Also, make sure that you use the device yourself on a regular basis, so that you understand what does and does not work when interacting with the platform.</p> <p>As a final resource, I also recommend paying the $299 for the <a href="http://developer.apple.com/products/videos.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WWDC 2009 iPhone Session Videos</a>. They are <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1402282/wwdc-2009-iphone-session-videos">well worth the money</a>, particularly if you are just getting started on the platform.</p> <p>Beyond the cost of an entry-level Mac (the Mini is a good choice, but the 13" MacBook Pros are a great value and can run Windows well), the $99 / year membership in the developer program (which you don't even need to pay until you want to install the application on a device or distribute it), and the cost of the books or videos listed above, the only hidden cost to worry about is time. I've spent a lot more time tinkering with the iPhone platform than I imagined I would when I started over a year ago.</p>

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