Discussion on:

Assembling an iOS development environment

Since you bought the server version of the Mac Mini, apparently to get the 4 core cpu and
second hard drive instead of the discrete graphics, I wonder if having the additional server parts of OS X complicates life? Basically, does it stay out of they way if you aren't using it?

I believe that spending over 1000$ on hardware may be intimidating for someone who only needs to give iOS development a try??? Fortunately, Virtual Box can run Mac OS X well enough to allow iPhone development to the point someone can decide whether is worth or not to continue that way and purchase a true Mac environment.
Just my 2cts

I went through a similar process last year but my focus was even more on saving money. I bought the base Mac Mini (the 2.3Ghz model) along with a 3rd party 8GB upgrade. The original came with 2GB and the difference once I'd added the extra RAM was breathtaking - so much so that I'd say the Mac Mini as shipped is unusable.

I've found it more than adequate for my purposes developing and compiling iOS apps. It is underpowered compared with a PC of the same price but my existing PC was getting a bit long in the tooth and the Mac Mini is so quiet I now tend to use it more or less exclusively. I got a mini DisplayPort adaptor to power a second monitor and it's a nice environment. I'm not especially fond of the (in my view) childish design of the UI but otherwise it's been fine.

I also purchased a refurbished iPad rather than a brand new one (it has no moving parts, after all) and an iPod Touch for iPhone development. These choices saved hundreds.

One piece of advice - don't wait until you're ready to deploy your app to register as an Apple developer and pay your $99. If you're registering as a company, this can take up to two weeks to get sorted as you find yourself having to fax (yes FAX!) documents to them - this can be extremely frustrating!

Nice setup!
I recommend iTunes University course cs193p from Stanford university.
It is 10 times better than any book and the lecturer is amazing.
http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/
http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/ipad-iphone-application-development/id473757255
http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs193p/cgi-bin/drupal/downloads-2011-fall
and best of all it is free!!

1. Check out the Apple refurbs, occasionally get can get a good deal on a Mac Mini which will put you in at a few dollars less than before. Keep in mind the inventory is always shifting on their site so just because you don't see what you want, check back a few hours later. They will generally knock off about $100 off of a refurbished Mac Mini.

2. An iPad 2 runs $399 new or $349 on the refurb market. Some places such as MicroCenter or Walmart even have been running new models at $359. For development purposes though one should probably choose to save on the Mini and splurge getting an iPad 3 to get the IPS resolution.

Hi

I recently upgraded my late 2009 mac mini with a 120gb ssd and 8gb

bets thing I did very fast now and much more usable than with a 320gb 5400rpm drive

boost in 2 second and launches apps in like 5 seconds no lag in development either

Justin, this is a good read. I did a similar thing a few years ago but decided to go all in on my iMac and the original iPad.

Question though, what do you think about objective c and its funky syntax? I've been developing mobile apps and I've found it really hard to justify learning objective C when I can do 70% of the same thing in HTML5. The other 30% that HTML5 can't do seem more like bells and whistles that objective C can give you - a bit more responsive UI and special things like working with the graphics libraries, game development, specific things to the hardware etc.

Just curious your thoughts since your getting into the thick of things.

O-C doesn't make any sense until you read the history of it and get a handle on the technical underpinnings... the idea that OOP was bolted on via pre-compilation processing and it is just standard C under the hood drives most of the strangeness of it. *For me* it is not bad, but in large part that's because 1) I'm starting now as opposed to a few years ago, so I get ARC and don't need to worry as much about pointers and such and 2) my early programming experiences were with systems like COBOL, Pascal, and a touch of C, so much of this is a "fond memory" for me, not, "I miss C# or Java!" If I had been taught programming in the last 10 - 15 years, I'd be complaining that this feels primitive, but I think that they managed in many ways to retain the comfort of old school imperative programming, while dragging much of it (albeit kicking and screaming) into the modern world. Interface Builder is a good example of that...

J.Ja

I actually started out with C years ago as a teenager but ofcourse I've been in the C# world for the last 10 years. Going back to C isn't too scary of a concept and I'd actually welcome the ability to malloc() my memory and not depend on garbage collection collecting my memory whenever it feels like (i.e. large DataSets).

I'm more curious though on WHY you would learn OC and not use html5 instead for your iPhone projects? This is something I've wrestled with and I always end up going html5+jQuery, not because I'm more comfortable with it (I'm a total hack at jQuery for sure) but because it seems like html5 (especially used in conjunction with Phonegap) does so much, why learn this whole new (hacked) language?

I would think you've wrestled with the same idea?