[Interview with People] A magical figure from a musician to an independent iOS App developer ~ Interview with Teacher Wei Wei

Before the popularity of smart phones, most people's thoughts about programmers may still be stuck in working overtime until midnight every day, smoking and drinking cups of coffee and banging on the keyboard, just to write the correct program sequence and catch the hard-working workers who hide bugs.

With the development of science and technology, many things that had to be done in front of the computer have evolved to be handled by mobile phones. And the program-related work, because of the innovation of development tools, has gradually lowered the threshold. At present, many commonly used smart phone apps are actually written by newcomers.

Even so, it's not easy and difficult to change from an amateur novice who doesn't know the program at all to a Pro-level developer who can independently develop mobile apps and put them on the App Store, but many people have actually gone through this road.

Miss Wei Wei is also one of the people who walked this road alone.

At present, Mr. Wei Wei, who is a full-time developer of iOS mobile Apps, has developed nearly 5 apps, among which "Yellow Duckling" and "Designated Suspect" have been ranked in the Top 1 of itunes charts, and have written many app development reference books, and even served as lecturers in the courses of the Planning Committee.

It's just that you may not believe that Mr. Wei Wei's original occupation has nothing to do with program development or even the technology industry. Then, how can teachers achieve today's achievements? Today, engadget has the honor to invite Mr. Wei Wei to come and talk with you about the experience of developing self-taught App. ?

QK tiger (hereinafter referred to as q): Good afternoon, teacher. I'm glad you can come to engadget. Have you read the interview manuscript I gave you earlier?

Ms. Wei Wei (hereinafter referred to as Wei): Yes, I did. After reading it, there was nothing wrong with it. It's also a pleasure to come to engadget to chat with you today.

Q: let's ask about the work first. did the teacher intend to engage in the development of iOS App programming from the beginning?

Wei: Actually, I was not. I used to be a DJ, engaged in music-related work, composing lyrics and so on. I also helped some singers write lyrics and songs, such as Luo Baiji, Tokyo D, and Pig's Scalp (Yueh-hsin Chu). I once released a record for about 15 to 2 years. At that time, I sold about 8, copies, which seems to be very good now, but the previous music market is better than before.

It's actually not that difficult to learn the program by yourself

Q: I didn't expect the teacher to be a musician, so how can I change to my present career?

Wei: I remember that after working in the music industry for a period of time, I was at the age of military service, so I left this field. After leaving the army, I plan to enrich myself. I decided to go back to study, get into my minor, double major in philosophy and German, and minor in French. I felt that the more I studied, the more interested I became. I went to the German Institute, worked as an editor in Wunan Publishing House after graduation, and came to develop an App, which was the opportunity that happened when I worked in the publishing house.

Q: what do you mean?

Wei: I was mainly responsible for making foreign languages in the publishing house. At that time, the reference books of "learning languages by looking at pictures" were very popular, and I often assisted in editing illustrations and other work. In 29, I bought the first iPhone in my life. Although it came out in 27, I didn't buy it until 29. It happened that Taiwan Province smelled that e-books might be popular in that year and decided to make it the "first year of e-books". I thought so at that time, too. I was promoted from editor to editor, and I had an urge to try for the arrival of e-books.

at first, we tried to make it with 5 and ePod, but halfway through, we found that the finished product was really not interactive, so we came up with the idea of learning to develop an App. I told my boss that I wanted to learn App in order to help me publish e-books. Although my boss encouraged me, I couldn't leave my job without pay, so I had to leave the industry and concentrate on my studies.

I didn't have any idea at first, so I went to the Strategic Planning Committee for about three or four months. I think the courses during that time helped me a lot and laid a foundation for me. Later, I also went to National Taiwan University to watch many related courses, such as JavaScript, PHP ... and so on. It wasn't long before I developed my own App, and after a while I found a job in a software company smoothly.

However, writing programs is actually an important part of self-study, because the programming language is constantly changing, so I have to keep an eye on its changes. When I have a job, I can't go to class all the time. Just when I was troubled by this, I found a good thing, that is, online courses. There are many good online courses abroad, which are not only diverse, but also very detailed. Besides, the threshold of foreign languages is not a big problem for me. Compared with domestic resources, the amount of resources is much less.

I did it for a while, and I also developed many apps, among which "Identifying Suspects" ranked second in the itunes download list at that time. I thought it was almost time to go back to the publishing house, so I called my boss to tell him his achievements, but I felt that the boss still had no intention to implement this wave. Up to now, this publishing house has not made its own e-book App.

since I can't go back, I thought, anyway, I can write Code, score music and computer drawing, and just do it myself. This work is both free and interesting, so I have done it now.

Q: it's amazing that a teacher can cross so many different industries because of his interest. it sounds like you are all self-taught about the development of App?

Wei: Yes, except for classes in the first three or four months, most of the other parts are really self-taught.

Why do you want to teach Swift

Q: At present, teachers are mainly teaching Swift as a tool to develop iOS App. What are the main reasons?

Wei: Swift, a tool promoted by Apple at present, has two advantages: First, it is easier to learn than the original Objective-C, with a lower threshold. Besides being compatible with Objective-C, it also has the function of Xcode Playgrounds. When you enter the code, you can immediately preview the displayed effect, which is easier for novices to understand.

Secondly, this tool can not only correspond to iOS, but also apply to the application level of Mac OS. This brand-new language is a mixture of Objective-C, JavaScript, Python and other languages, and it is easy to learn and has a wide development in the future. For beginners, it is a perfect tool for developing introductory programs.

Advice for novices who want to enter the field of program development

Q: Like you, you have never encountered any difficulties since you were a novice who didn't know how to develop programs at all, and you have developed so many iOS App so far.

Wei: Looking back on this, I seem to be quite ignorant (laughs)! Because I learned all the way, I really didn't feel any bottleneck, perhaps because of the rich resources of online courses! Many times I can find the relevant knowledge I want to know by myself.

Although I haven't encountered a bottleneck, there will be mistakes. For a while, I jumped into the development of Corona SDK, which can correspond to both iOS and Android. After doing it for a while, I came back to continue to develop iOS App, only to find that I had a lot of mistakes before, but I didn't know them until I did Corona SDK.

Q: if there is a layman who doesn't understand programming design at all and wants to learn to write an App and make money from it, what advice would you give him?

Wei: I think the development of App is a very attractive career for many people. As far as iOS is concerned, the threshold for Apple has been lower since Swift was replaced by Objective-C as the main development tool. If you really want to learn, in fact, there should be no big problem in the field of professional knowledge. If you practice hard and keep practicing, diligently find online resources, or take special courses, you will surely get results.

The key point is that everyone knows that there are hundreds of thousands of Apps in the App Store. Will you get any benefits after you write an app and put it on the shelf? I'm afraid it's difficult, and there are quite a few free apps now. If your apps charge, what do you have to do to win those free apps? Therefore, the most important thing is a clear goal. You said that you want to learn to write and develop an App. Ok, for what? Is it to make money, or to complete the idea in your heart? These two purposes are no problem and clear. It's just that the way to achieve it will be a little different.

I suggest setting goals at each stage. For example, if you attend a three-month class, you should set a goal: you should learn a certain step within three months, which may be the use of a tool or the development of a basic App. After completing this stage, I will order the next one. During the process, I will practice every day and record my daily achievements. When I look back, I will know what I have done.

in addition, it is also very important to set a stop-loss point. If you give up your original job today and plan to join the App development industry, you should pay more attention to it. After all, some people are just not suitable for it. Be honest with your conscience. When the stop-loss point comes, carefully check whether all the goals you have set have been completed. If all your efforts are still fruitless, you should consider stopping. It will only waste time and money to invest again.

In addition, people who want to make money, if they just want to be their own App, may not be able to make a profit unless you have the same idea as most people. Therefore, what kind of App will be the public's favorite? Will it be something that everyone is interested in using? This has become the key to making money.

my own experience is that if you want to get attention quickly, you'd better understand the social situation before developing it. Current events and popular keywords are usually good topics. For example, the "Yellow Duckling" I made earlier was born in response to the exhibition at that time, so it performed quite well. It's a bit like selling food, and you have to be able to catch everyone's stomach.

At the end of the interview, Mr. Wei Wei added a lot of experiences to share. He wanted to tell everyone who is interested in developing an App. As long as you really want to learn and are willing to spend time to do it, it's really not that difficult to develop an App. Setting goals, practicing hard and looking for resources can definitely achieve good results. In order to let more students who are interested step into this field smoothly, Mr. Wei Wei opened his own exclusive development course on the online course website Udemy. Mr. Wei Wei said that he spent a lot of time teaching this course in detail, with the aim that novices who don't understand it at all can become developers of iOS App through his careful explanation, and the content is completely in Chinese, so there is no need to worry about language barriers.

? Updated on April 14, 217, the new course was launched:

Do you want to follow in the footsteps of Mr. Wei Wei and design your own App from scratch? Don't hesitate any longer! Here is a special link for everyone. Join Wei Wei's course: Swift3 from entry to mastery of iPhone development