We started the day with a morning assessment of a “Table of Dates” App to get the juices flowing and review Table Views and Navigation Controllers from yesterday.

Then we dove right in to Core Data by first talking about what it is (and what it isn’t) to making our List App from yesterday, Senari, Core Data enabled.

Then we joined the Ruby class and had a guest lecture entitled “How to be stuck” on coping mechanisms to help you power through when you get stuck by Michael Hoffman.

How to be stuck (Michael Hoffman)

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Day four and I have given up my beloved SourceTree App Version Control GUI front-end.  For years, I thought, this was the Mac way to do this version control thing.  But after getting stuck in it the dive into the shell was the only way to go to learn to Git and now I totally Git it. Continue reading →

Another giant day with a quick morning assessment that involved a random number generator app to get the juices flowing.  Then an early lecture on Object Oriented Concepts like classes and objects in Objective-C framed in a Chemistry App with a Hydrogen and Oxygen class that quickly was refactored into an Element Class with designated initializers to pass in the element symbol and atomic weight.  Then we discussed class methods, inheritance, and categories.

Then we joined the Ruby class in a Knot Tying lab where we got to acquire the beginner mind on knots plus learn some really useful knots.

Knot Tying with the Classes United

After some lunch we returned to lecture to discuss the Delegate Design Pattern, Protocols, and what it means to be the First Responder. Continue reading →

Today, we started with a new ritual of a morning assessment.  The assessment was a git to-do to cement yesterday’s git actions and get them into our muscle memory. This was followed by an Auto Layout Lab which took us into the afternoon.

For lunch we discovered the capability to order from Chipotle’s from our iPhones since the line at the 2 Broadway Chipotle’s goes around the block. We’ll probably have 1,000 burritos from now till the end of this course.

After lunch Joe did a git walk through to show us branching and merge requesting.  Then we did the Programmer of the Day which is a segment where we discuss a famous programmer. Today, to make up for yesterday, we had a double dose: George Boole & Blaise Pascal.

In discussing Pascal (the man not the language) we discussed Pascal’s Triangle and then we each wrote an iOS App that outputs one based on any number of rows.

Al presented his factorial solution.  I used the naive solution of adding adjacent cells in my double NSArray.

After checking in our solutions into the class gitlab the remainder of the day was spent on continuing yesterday’s QuizMe App by adding an Answer View Controller and (you guessed it) setting up the Auto Layout for Portrait and Landscape on the nib by using the Visual Format Language which is difficult to debug and where you are on your own since Auto Correct abandons you.

I then went to the NY iOS Developer Meetup at Conde Nast to film Rob Blackwood and Raul Gutierrez of Tinybop as they spoke of their awesome app The Human Body and their awesome company making toys for tomorrow.

Filming Rob Blackwood and Raul Gutierrez of Tinybop

There is a Zen saying: “When the pupil is ready, the master will appear.”

Kickoff of the Flatiron School iOS Course

Today is Day 1 for me of the Inaugural iOS Course at the Flatiron School.

For me this could not have come at a more perfect time.   Continue reading →