McCarthy Matt - Coding iPhone apps for kids: a playful introduction to swift

CODING IPHONE APPS FOR KIDS

A PLAYFUL INTRODUCTION TO SWIFT

GLORIA WINQUIST
MATT MCCARTHY

San Francisco

CODING IPHONE APPS FOR KIDS. Copyright 2017 by Gloria Winquist and Matt McCarthy.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

ISBN-10: 1-59327-756-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-756-7

Publisher: William Pollock
Production Editors: Alison Law and Riley Hoffman
Cover Illustration: Josh Ellingson
Illustrator: Keiko Satoh
Additional Illustrations: Max Burger
Developmental Editors: Tyler Ortman, Jan Cash, and Hayley Baker
Technical Reviewer: Mark H. Granoff
Copyeditor: Rachel Monaghan
Compositors: Alison Law and Riley Hoffman
Proofreader: Shannon Waite

For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales, please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:

No Starch Press, Inc.
245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: 1.415.863.9900;
www.nostarch.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Names: Winquist, Gloria, author. | McCarthy, Matt (Software engineer), author.
Title: Coding iPhone apps for kids : a playful introduction to swift / Gloria
Winquist and Matt McCarthy.
Description: San Francisco : No Starch Press, Inc., [2017] | Audience: Age 10
plus.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017002199 (print) | LCCN 2017015717 (ebook) | ISBN
9781593278373 (epub) | ISBN 1593278373 (epub) | ISBN 9781593278380 (mobi)
| ISBN 1593278381 (mobi) | ISBN 9781593277567 (pbk.) | ISBN 1593277563
(pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Swift (Computer program language)--Juvenile literature. |
iPhone (Smartphone)--Programming--Juvenile literature. | Application
software--Development--Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC QA76.73.S95 (ebook) | LCC QA76.73.S95 W56 2017 (print) |
DDC 004.1675--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017002199

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the authors nor No Starch Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

To Dagmar, Jude, Gretchen, Colin, Brenna, and Jackie

Gloria Winquist is a longtime Apple enthusiast and has fond memories of playing Zork on her familys Apple III home computer. Her first programming languages were Logo and BASIC, and then she learned C while getting her mechanical engineering degree. She worked for a while as a mechanical engineer but realized all she really wanted to do at work was write code. So she went to night school and learned Java, then Lisp, then JavaScript, and finally iOS programming and Objective-C. She found that she loved writing apps and has been doing it ever since!

Matt McCarthy first learned to program in BASIC on an Apple II+ at the age of 10. He still remembers his first program; it was just two lines of code, but he was instantly hooked. Hes programmed professionally (and for fun) in many computer languages. But when the iOS App Store launched in 2008, he was immediately drawn to it and soon started publishing iOS apps through his company, Tomato Interactive LLC. Matt has worked professionally as an iOS engineer since 2012, developing healthcare apps for doctors and patients.

Gloria and Matt live in Concord, Massachusetts, and are the parents of a blended family of six kids. Coding iPhone Apps for Kids is their first book.

Mark H. Granoff is an iOS developer and professional software engineer. For more than 30 years Mark has developed all kinds of software, but in 2009 he switched his focus to iOS and founded Hawk iMedia (www.hawkimedia.com). Hes developed more than two dozen iOS applications and has reviewed several iOS programming books on a variety of topics. Mark lives outside Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife, two daughters, and one Cairn terrier named Kenzie.

Keiko Satoh has been drawing ever since she could hold a pencil, and her doodling skills came in handy when she had to move England not knowing a word of English. Besides always finding some excuse to draw, Keiko has worked in botanical gardens, hospitals, and even a cemetery, organizing archives, setting up websites, and helping people understand their health and the environment. These days she can be seen doodling with her Apple Pencil while in transit between the three cities she considers her homesTokyo, Boston, and London.

First and foremost, we would like to thank the amazing staff at No Starch Press for working with us. Tyler Ortman was immediately enthusiastic when first approached and made this book possible. He gave us great tips on how to write for a younger audience when editing the early chapters of the book. Jan Cash brought our book across the finish line with her editing expertise, and Hayley Baker helped immensely in the editing process. We want to thank our production editors, Alison Law and Riley Hoffman, for their patience and hard work in polishing our words and perfecting the layouts that make the book look fantastic. Serena Yanga big thanks for dealing with code coloring, illustrations, the cover, and lots of screenshots!

Thank you to Keiko Satoh, our illustrator. She read through all of our examples and came up with the witty drawings that you see scattered throughout the books pages. Gloria has loved Keikos artwork ever since they went to school together long ago in Brighton, England, and is thrilled that Keiko came on board to illustrate her first book!

We would also like to thank Josh Ellingson for the cover illustration and Max Burger for additional illustrations inside the book.

Thanks to Mark H. Granoff for the technical review. Swift is a new language, and we appreciate the time and effort that he spent familiarizing himself with Swift and for carefully and thoroughly reviewing our book.

Finally, we are so grateful to Glorias dad, Floyd Winquist, for his patient and careful review of the book. He tested all the examples, read through several versions of all of the chapters, and provided much valuable feedback.

Have you ever heard someone say, I wish there was an app for that? Maybe they were talking about a holiday card organizer or an app that can turn someone into a kitten. Well, you can be the person who makes that app! In this book, youll learn how to program in Swift, the language used for mobile applications that run on all Apple devices. By the time youve finished reading, youll have developed apps you can run on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.