iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (Big Nerd Ranch Guides)

The Big Nerd Ranch Guide is an excellent book that will take you from start to competent enough to look things up yourself.

Assuming that you're calling myMethod on the same class as what implements viewDidLoad:

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    //...other code
    [self myMethod];
    //...other code
}

If you are having trouble with basic Objective-C though, I'd strongly suggest to either get a decent book on Objective-C, such as:

• Programming in Objective-C 2.0 by Stephen Kochan
• Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass
• iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Joe Conway & Aaron Hillegass

…or at least read a good beginners tutorial, such as:
http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/d/learn_objectivec/

There are quite a few more helpful beginners tutorials by Scott Stevenson here:
http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/

Welcome to the wonderful world of iOS development :)

1. Books: http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-iPhone-Development-Exploring-iOS/dp/143023024X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295658259&sr=8-2 and http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/0321706242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295658322&sr=8-1

2. Gotchas: No special ones. Of course there are gotchas everywhere, but worry about those when you encounter them.

3. Advantages: I'd say definitely the tools (Xcode and Interface Builder) and a non-fractured market (only one App Store). Plus the frameworks are beautifully designed and (mostly) a joy to work with.

4. Mostly via ads. Apple's official ad program is called "iAds": http://advertising.apple.com/

5. There are lots. A few: http://www.cimgf.com/ http://www.cocoadev.com http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/ and of course the official Apple site http://developer.apple.com/ios has really good docs and tutorials.

6. Xcode: Because it's the official one. There's also AppCode and RubyMotion (not an IDE).

I personally really enjoy developing for iOS. Reading and writing a lot of code is the best way to learn. Pick some project and just start developing it, that's a great hands-on way to learn. Also check out conferences like NSConference and the official one week Apple developers conference in San Francisco: WWDC (http://developer.apple.com/wwdc). I've gone the last 6 years in a row and not regretted it once.

Have fun!

• Johannes

I don't believe there are yet, but keep an eye out for the updated version of the Hillegass book to come out sometime this year (that's just a guess).

http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/0321706242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301372927&sr=8-1

I think this is the best iPhone programming book. Honestly, the differences between XCode 3 & 4 are significant, but it's not too challenging to work through the differences. It's mostly UI changes, so once you know the new place to go, you're golden.

Note, Hillegass has mentioned the 4th edition in the works: http://twitter.com/AaronHillegass/status/48493059322818560

I've not seen a release date yet.