Wanting to move into development - which area?

Priapus

Priapus

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Howzit guys,

So, I want to get out of the I.T field. Currently, I am a field technician.

Last year, I played with some iOS mobile development and enjoyed it but since I no longer have a Macbook,
I cannot carry on with it.

However I will get another one soon

My question is though, is mobile development the best way to go?
I was thinking along the lines of PHP and C# / Java maybe?

Any thoughts and advise?

Thank guys
 
If your good then you can take your pick. There are jobs in all those languages but be prepared to start at the bottom. I did that when I was 31, took a job as a PHP junior with a junior salary.
 
I'd say C#. Mobile development isn't a bad direction to move into. More and more development is being done in the mobile area these days.
I dislike Java but it's not dying just yet, but neither is PHP.
 
C# with in depth JavaScript (not just jQuery), Java and obviously objective C if you want to do iOS things. Don't forget about things like SOAP, REST, xml, json, etc etc. There are so many things devs should know... but you can start there. :-)
 
kripstoe said:
C# with in depth JavaScript (not just jQuery), Java and obviously objective C if you want to do iOS things. Don't forget about things like SOAP, REST, xml, json, etc etc. There are so many things devs should know... but you can start there. :-)
Click to expand...

+!, just add XAML and WCF - the foundation blocks for Win8.
 
Thanks guys.

I dont know Java or C# as well as I know Objective C. However I am willing to learn. I know I would have to start at the bottom, thats okay.

I am 24 and I dont want to waste too much time putting this off. I was thinking of taking up development (Learning as much as I can) and then maybe in a year or two start looking for a Junior position ?
 
Tander said:
Thanks guys.

I dont know Java or C# as well as I know Objective C. However I am willing to learn. I know I would have to start at the bottom, thats okay.

I am 24 and I dont want to waste too much time putting this off. I was thinking of taking up development (Learning as much as I can) and then maybe in a year or two start looking for a Junior position ?
Click to expand...

No reason not to start looking now. No better training than on the job training.
 
I also like Objective C. However SA isn't exactly the ideal place to get work developing in Objective C.

Apple and Blackberry have dominated the mobile market, but its changing. Android is gaining strength. And you can never ignore Microsoft with Windows Mobile. Blackberry look to be in trouble. Most likely Apple, Android and Windows Mobile will be the 3 main dominant platforms. Don't write the other small players off though. Java etc. Sometimes its more rewarding working on one of the fringe technologies.

My advice is to move away from Objective C, if you are going to stay in SA. Until Apple establishes a proper presence in SA, its going to very difficult. Im not sure whether an SA based Apple ID limits you to distributing on the SA store. Yes, you can get a US/UK id, but getting paid is going to make things complicated and you run the risk of losing your id. Historically, SA is a Microsoft and Java dominated environment and more companies are committed to these platforms, than OSX/iOS. If you move to the US/Canada, then you can continue with Objective C.
 
kripstoe said:
No reason not to start looking now. No better training than on the job training.
Click to expand...

Well, the issue with that is I don't know enough C# to be considered for employment in a junior position. That's why I would like to
grow my skills first before job hunting in that arena.

zippy said:
I also like Objective C. However SA isn't exactly the ideal place to get work developing in Objective C.

Apple and Blackberry have dominated the mobile market, but its changing. Android is gaining strength. And you can never ignore Microsoft with Windows Mobile. Blackberry look to be in trouble. Most likely Apple, Android and Windows Mobile will be the 3 main dominant platforms. Don't write the other small players off though. Java etc. Sometimes its more rewarding working on one of the fringe technologies.

My advice is to move away from Objective C, if you are going to stay in SA. Until Apple establishes a proper presence in SA, its going to very difficult. I'm not sure whether an SA based Apple ID limits you to distributing on the SA store. Yes, you can get a US/UK id, but getting paid is going to make things complicated and you run the risk of losing your id. Historically, SA is a Microsoft and Java dominated environment and more companies are committed to these platforms, than OSX/iOS. If you move to the US/Canada, then you can continue with Objective C.
Click to expand...

I decided a long time ago, that I would not develop for Android. It's far too fragmented and there are just too many devices, with all difference flavors of the OS to make it worth doing. Seems like a lot more work for no apparent reason.

Blackberry seems to be on a downward spiral for the last few years. Maybe their new Blackberry 10 OS will save the day, maybe it won't. I don't want to risk wasting time developing / learning their SDK's and OS, for the company to be shut in a few years time.

I agree that Apple, Microsoft and Android will be the three leaders in this market.

Maybe like you say, mobile development is probably not the way to go. C# and Java - maybe, some PHP/CSS?
 
After you learn your second language, every subsequent language learned after that will be awfully easy (unless its *****ing rails). Also Objective C has many Java/C#-like elements with some C/C++-like elements, you should not have trouble learning either of these languages. If you just want to learn as fast as possible, I suggest Python.
 
Tander said:
Well, the issue with that is I don't know enough C# to be considered for employment in a junior position. That's why I would like to
grow my skills first before job hunting in that arena.

....
Click to expand...

You will never know enough until you start working. I jumped into the deep end when I got into development, knew nothing about PHP and ended up spending my notice month studying up on it. :)
 
C# is probably your best choice, if you know Objective C. All these languages are very similar. It will be hard to get away from Objective C's very elegant implementation of properties :)

A lot if guys recommend PHP. Don't ignore that. The only reason I don't, is that I have never worked with it and I doubt I ever will, so I can't comment on it :)
 
Last edited:
cbrunsdonza said:
You will never know enough until you start working. I jumped into the deep end when I got into development, knew nothing about PHP and ended up spending my notice month studying up on it. :)
Click to expand...

Then why would a company hire someone who doesn't know too much PHP / C etc?
I would love to work / learn the language at the same time, that would be really awesome.

zippy said:
C# is probably your best choice, if you know Objective C. All these languages are very similar. It will be hard to get away from Objective C's very elegant implementation of properties :)

A lot if guys recommend PHP. Don't ignore that. The only reason I don't, is that I have never worked with it and I doubt I ever will, so I can't comment on it :)
Click to expand...

Hmmm, objective C is only for iOS though, isn't it?
Also, I lovethe way that language makes reading / writing it a lot easier.

I've been interested in PHP too, I would like to get two to three languages under my belt - not just one, which will limit my horizon
 
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Having some more thoughts on this...

Would it be beneficial to go into iOS programming + C# / PHP ?

I need to set myself a road map to follow to get me to where I want to be..
 
It really depends where you can get work in. I'd say PHP is easy to pick up and more or less the same syntax as C#, so you can do PHP/HTML/JavaScript then move onto C# (where HTML and JavaScript experience can be transferred as is).

Don't forget database skills yo. But that's web dev, not mobile app dev (although you can do it for mobile via web browser I guess)
 
Well, I am not looking to only do mobile development. I'd like to learn a few languages - maybe something not too difficult to start off with. Learning a bit of C was hard at first, objective C made it easier.

When it comes to learning PHP/HTML - I am sure I can pickup these languages pretty easy. I would also like to get into heavier stuff, DB's and so forth.

I don't want to rush myself - I believe if I keep working in the I.T field as I am doing now - but start learning some programming languages, then in a few years I could start a job as a junior with an OK salary and work my way up. My goal is by the time I am in my 30's, I want to be a quite advanced in programming and obviously still learning more and just growing.

My biggest issue right now.. which language do i start with? (Considering I have done quite a bit of Objective C already )
 
Tander said:
Well, I am not looking to only do mobile development. I'd like to learn a few languages - maybe something not too difficult to start off with. Learning a bit of C was hard at first, objective C made it easier.

When it comes to learning PHP/HTML - I am sure I can pickup these languages pretty easy. I would also like to get into heavier stuff, DB's and so forth.

I don't want to rush myself - I believe if I keep working in the I.T field as I am doing now - but start learning some programming languages, then in a few years I could start a job as a junior with an OK salary and work my way up. My goal is by the time I am in my 30's, I want to be a quite advanced in programming and obviously still learning more and just growing.

My biggest issue right now.. which language do i start with? (Considering I have done quite a bit of Objective C already )
Click to expand...

Look, it really doesn't matter where you start. It matters that you actually start.

That being said, I'm a fan of C# because if you know it you can essentially move between a lot specifics easily.
With C# you can:
-Make games with MonoGame which is XNA but works on many many platforms
-Make websites with ASP.NET/MVC
-Make rock solid API's without much fuss with ASP.NET MVC WebAPI
-Make desktop apps with great UI's and animations with WPF
-Make mobile apps (for Windows Phone) with Silverlight.
-Make Windows 8 "metro" apps in XAML
-Make XBOX Live Indie games in XNA
-Make quick desktop console apps and services
-Make Line Of Business applications for web with Silverlight (SL has been discontinued - but support isn't stopping for a long time).
-Use a framework like SharpDX to directly access DirectX without needing to use C++ on mobile and desktop.
-Code for electronics with the Netduino (check the other two threads I made in this forum today).

That's why I like it. But it doesn't matter what I like or anyone else here for that matter. Find something you are interested in and go for it. When first learning coding it really doesn't matter all that much what language you focus on (IMO!).
 
So you're saying I could start with PHP (or any language) and just move on from there?

I took a brief look at PHP this morning - seems super easy to pick up. I don't want to start off on a difficult language and then give up and not return to programming - I think I need to get my feet wet with something easy - then from there, learn to swim with other languages?
 
Tander said:
So you're saying I could start with PHP (or any language) and just move on from there?

I took a brief look at PHP this morning - seems super easy to pick up. I don't want to start off on a difficult language and then give up and not return to programming - I think I need to get my feet wet with something easy - then from there, learn to swim with other languages?
Click to expand...

What I mean is that the most important thing is to get your mind into the right state - and any coding will do that.
As far as PHP goes, personally I think it's a bit of a mess, and I like structure. Most of the languages you've talking about aren't "harder" or "easier" than each other - just different.

Don't go start with ASM though :P
 
PHP may be a bit of a mess - however it may be just the thing to get me into the right state? (Mind wise )

But thinking about it now.., maybe C# is better to start with?
 
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