MacNoob

I’ve spent the last several weeks pouring over the iPhone SDK.  It’s been great dipping my toe into the programming pond again.  I’ve been an IT manager far too long.  Spending my days managing a department, fighting budgets, crafting enterprise security strategy and disaster recovery has taken me away from my first love, programming.  I don’t claim to be a great developer.  Maybe not even a good one, but writing code is how I got started in this business some twenty plus years ago and getting involved with the Mac and iPhone SDK has re-invigorated me.

When I bought my Mac last October one of the biggest surprises was discovering the developer tools that ship with OS X.  I’ve been a Microsoft Developer Network Universal subscriber for over ten years and quite used to shelling out several hundred dollars per year for access to Visual Studio and Microsoft’s SDKs.  Granted, the MSDN subscription included several operating systems, all the Office versions and servers and a host of other tools plus an extensive linked documentation library.  After all, it is Microsoft we’re talking about.  Even if you did only want a version of Visual Studio comparable to the XCode suite that ships with Leopard, you’re going to have to fork over three or four Ben Franklins to Mr. Softie for the privilege of writing Win32 code.

Since enrolling in the iPhone SDK beta program I’ve realized just how much of my programming skills have fallen by the wayside.  The “use it or lose it” truism absolutely applies in my case.  As I said, I’ve been an IT manager way too long.  I’ve had to go back to my bookshelves and dig up all my old C and C++ books because even though I’ve written twenty to thirty thousand lines of code in my life, some of even the most basic syntax escapes me.  One book in particular, Herbert Schildt’s “Teach Yourself C” was instrumental in shaping my professional life.  Working through the first edition of that title is how I learned to program.  Opening it again after fifteen years was like shaking hands with an old friend and it was very refreshing to see the XCode environment still supports even the most rudimentary terminal application building.  It didn’t take long for me to realize how much standards had changed, so I went to Amazon and bought the latest edition.  You see, I absolutely believe in the “crawl before you walk” theory and would never try to take on Objective C (the programming language of the iPhone) without a sound refresher in ANSI C fundamentals.  I think there are way too many developers out there that code things without really knowing the full extent and implications of their actions…but maybe I’m just old-fashioned.

I know I’m rambling, but it’s important to understand the context of this post.  I see the iPhone SDK as the third rail of platforms.  Windows, Mac then iPhone in that order.  With Microsoft’s utter failure to entrench Windows Mobile as a viable platform they have left the door wide open for Apple to establish an ipso facto standard in the mobile space.  With the release of the iPhone SDK early next month they’ve done that in spades.  For those of you Gen X folks out there, think back just ten years ago about the computer hardware running on your desktop.  Never mind, I’ll do it for you.  A really good PC sported a 300 MHz P3 processor, 128 MB of RAM and 4 to 8 gigs of storage.  Now consider the iPhone.  It beats all those specs quite handily and the very near future promises a doubling of that capability.  Also consider Apple’s uncanny ability to deliver devices that define their own niche.  In other words, products and software that create market where none [or very little] existed before by virtue of their well-designed and beautifully engineered user experience.  The iPod + iTunes comes to mind of course, but this goes all the way back to the Macintosh and arguably the Apple IIc.

Giving away the development environment and SDK is absolutely the right approach.  Other players in this market are already behind the proverbial 8-ball.  One thing they can never match is the near rabbidly enthusiastic developer base that Cupertino enjoys.  If Apple can get someone like me excited about developing again, just imagine the impact it will have on seasoned OS X code monkeys!  Given the richness of the iPhone SDK, it won’t take long for these many thousands of talented developers [who have already registered] to create magic beyond anything we can imagine today.  I feel the iPhone and iPod Touch are just the beginning and the mobile space is now Apple’s to lose.