Coding iPhone Apps for Kids

A Playful Introduction to Swift

by Gloria Winquist and Matt McCarthy

June 2017, 336 pp.

ISBN-13:

978-1-59327-756-7

Full Color

"Now is the perfect time for your kids to get a head start on a skill that may take them places, making Coding iPhone Apps for Kids an invaluable new addition to any computer-loving child’s bookshelf."
—The Huffington Post

Look Inside!

Apple’s Swift is a powerful, beginner-friendly programming language that anyone can use to make cool apps for the iPhone or iPad. In Coding iPhone Apps for Kids, you’ll learn how to use Swift to write programs, even if you’ve never programmed before.

You’ll work in the Xcode playground, an interactive environment where you can play with your code and see the results of your work immediately! You’ll learn the fundamentals of programming too, like how to store data in arrays, use conditional statements to make decisions, and create functions to organize your code—all with the help of clear and patient explanations.

Once you master the basics, you’ll build a birthday tracker app so that you won’t forget anyone’s birthday and a platform game called Schoolhouse Skateboarder with animation, jumps, and more!

As you begin your programming adventure, you’ll learn how to:

Build programs to save you time, like one that invites all of your friends to a party with just the click of a button!
Program a number-guessing game with loops to make the computer keep guessing until it gets the right answer
Make a real, playable game with graphics and sound effects using SpriteKit
Challenge players by speeding up your game and adding a high-score system

Why should serious adults have all the fun? Coding iPhone Apps for Kids is your ticket to the exciting world of computer programming.

Covers Swift 3.x and Xcode 8.x. Requires OS X 10.11 or higher.

Author Bio

Gloria Winquist became hooked on iOS development in 2011 and has been programming professionally ever since. She works as an iOS developer at LumiraDx.

Matt McCarthy has released more than 20 apps as part of a two-person team, Tomato Interactive LLC. He works as a software engineer at LumiraDx.

Table of contents

PART 1: Xcode and Swift
Chapter 1: Hello, World!
Chapter 2: Learning to Code in a Playground
Chapter 3: Making Choices
Chapter 4: Writing Code That Loops
Chapter 5: Keeping Your Programs Safe with Optionals
Chapter 6: Storing Collections in Dictionaries and Arrays
Chapter 7: Functions Are a Party, and You're Invited
Chapter 8: Custom Classes and Structs

PART 2: Birthday Tracker
Chapter 9: Creating Buttons and Screens on the Storyboard
Chapter 10: Adding a Birthday Class and Handling User Input
Chapter 11: Displaying Birthdays
Chapter 12: Saving Birthdays
Chapter 13: Getting Birthday Notifications

PART 3: Schoolhouse Skateboarder
Chapter 14: Setting the Stage
Chapter 15: Making Schoolhouse Skateboarder a Real Game
Chapter 16: Using the SpriteKit Physics Engine
Chapter 17: Adjusting Difficulty, Collecting Gems, and Keeping Score
Chapter 18: Game State, Menus, Sound, and Special Effects

View the detailed Table of Contents
View the Index

Reviews

“If you have a young one around this summer and are looking for a good book for them to use to learn Swift, check out Coding iPhone Apps for Kids.”
—Rob Walch, Today in iOS

“A great — and very affordable — place to launch the skill of app development. The book is a do-it-yourself challenge to all learners.”
—Getting Smart

“While Coding iPhone Apps for Kids is specifically intended for children ages 10 and older, it is so well constructed as a do-it-yourself instructional guide that it is unreservedly recommended for adults who would like to learn how to create iPhone apps of their own.”
—Midwest Book Review

“I highly recommend Coding iPhone Apps for Kids for a fun way to learn coding.”
—MyMac

“The book begins with coding a simple app, and by the end the reader can make a game he or she will be proud of. ”
—School Library Connection

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