

Ask HN: What to suggest to a  12 year old, who wants to learn App Development? - Brajeshwar

I got an email from a mother of a 5, seeking advice on what to do for her 12 year old son who wants to learn App Development (iOS or Android). She's from NJ but currently in Eastern Europe. It will be nice to lead her to some meaningful lead, references, et al. Thanking in anticipation.
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connect_vipin
This is very great a 12 year old boy wants to develop a application ..... let
me suggest some points first of all developing applications is very
challenging n interesting ....There is no end of developments but there are
some starts which is very necessary for every developer to learn ...Microsoft
provide a free tool kit of their products called Visual Studio 2010 Express
Products here is d link to download

[http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-
us/products/2010-ed...](http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-
us/products/2010-editions/express)

where every person without paying.... start making web,desktop & mobile
applications for personal use specially kids which is the best part over their
is a kids corner where kids learn how to make , design applications and learn
basic programming oops concepts with help of videos specially for kids

<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/default.aspx>

....after all this stuff u start looking deep in open source tech like java n
android .....their are lot of free tutorials channel in youtube New boston is
one of them and many paid tutorials lynda, video2brain ,nuggets so
many.........Thanks

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shyamster
Heard good things about Stanford iPhone courses on iTunes -
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/institution/stanford/id384228265>

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nextparadigms
These are nice for Android development:

<http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL34F010EEF9D45FB8>

He might need to learn some Java first, though. Thenewboston has some nice
Java ones, too.

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zeroxsys
Advise him to learn the concepts on software engineering. Starting with
software design using models/diagrams. It's a good way to visualize his app
and the overall project. Then, he could move to coding using tutorials
available on the web.

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struppi
That's maybe the best way to drive a 12 year old _AWAY_ from software
development. What's really interesting is building stuff and seeing how it
runs. When working alone you don't need to design with models/diagrams (heck,
you probably don't even need that in a team most of the time). You don't need
unit tests or a deployment strategy or a schedule. Just build stuff, have fun
and try to learn something.

I know this does not help the original poster. Most books about iPhone/Android
development are probably not suited for a 12 year old. Maybe starting from
tutorials or little open source apps is a good way: Read the code, try to
improve it, see what works. Iterate.

~~~
zeroxsys
That's why I said "concepts" (not diploma), it's up to him how in-depth and/or
hands-on he wants to go. But learning "how app's stuffs work" (the components
of the app - design, code, controls/interactions, data) is the foundation on
"building" one (that's because I don't believe a one-thingy app an app, like
putting a photo on the screen, it gotta be 2 or more stuffs assembled together
for me). If he just look inside an app, and he does not know what's the
meaning of the "code" (module/library, object), programming,
rebuilding/iterating, etc., he won't learn how and why it was built like that.
Heck, he would't have any idea what he's looking at! Fundamental concepts, no
matter how layman you can teach it to the kid, and having a "clear
idea/plan/purpose" are essential before you send him to "just build stuff".

For a kid, drawing boxes of things he would like to put into his app, and
seeing how he's going to put them together, is the best way to start an app,
and the best way to identify the concepts/skills he needs to learn.

To get you started, I suggest you (or the kid's parents) tell him to draw how
his app will look like, all screens (from the home screen to the scoreboard
:)) on individual boxes, the size of his iPad/mobile device, then you guys cut
them out. Then you link these screens/cut-outs with the navigation controls,
for him to understand the flow, and the "big picture" of what's he's building.

These are of course, if you want him to build "something," not just
practice/unfinished works that do nothing -- therefore does not contribute to
the kid.

(I taught basic Photoshop to kids, 8-12 years old. They were able to compose
cool graphics because they understood how to make bitmaps, shapes, texts,
layers, blending and effects work together. I didn't underestimate them, they
needed to know what the heck they're doing, so I really taught them those
things, in the end, we had an unbelievable exhibit! :))

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tianshuo
Try a third party framework, like corona for a start. Start making stuff and
learn the programming in the process.

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zeroxsys
Check Scratch (MIT) out at <http://scratch.mit.edu/>

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firefox
The same thing you'd advise a 40 year old ;) Also check udemy or lynda.com for
some great intro courses

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jester5
Honestly, This is going to sound slightly mean and unrealistic but I think it
would work. I would have them start with Assembly and then dabble with C++. At
12 years old they can dedicate lots of time the concepts. Yeah they might not
be deving anything cool right away but it the long run they will be amazing..
So I suggest Assembly, Visual C++ using Visual Studio.

