Learning to Build a Phone App as a Junior Developer

So, this is post one on how I'm building my first mobile app.  First, I did a little research on building phone apps.  My first exposure was at KCDC.  Website:  http://www.kcdc.info/#!/  I saw a class, "Rockin with Russ in Xamarin Forms".  He discusses it on YouTube (below).  So, I thought, wow, one way to design Mobile Apps on all platforms, Xamarin Forms... Rock ON!!!  Then I realized, I knew very little about Xamarin Forms as a beginning Developer.  So, I figured I'd do what every developer does, go get a job and get exp.  It's kind of like role-playing games, you get experience, then you go meet the final boss, but that's not the way it worked out for me.  I'm going straight to the final boss, with no exp.  

Alright, so the first thing I did is a little prep work.  First, I'll address those of you who aren't gamers.  If your not a gamer and your looking at my post right now you'll probably just pass it by, but did you know that entertainment is one of the biggest sellers today?  Paizo, publisher of Pathfinder, is a large company with tons of business.  Still not sold?  The Video Game industry got about 46.5 billion dollars last year in the USA.  (http://www.statista.com/statistics/237187/global-video-games-revenue/) Thatsa lotta chedda... and, you know what is looking more and more like video games every year?  The internet, phone apps, and everything you can think of... In fact, if sci-fi writers are right, you could be doing a lot of browsing using Avatars.  Some of you already are shopping with one... on Ebay!!!  How much further are we going to go?  I'm afraid the answer to that is crazy far, because younger generations are more and more involved in the internet and technology. So, don't discount this post because it is an app for a game; instead, take note because of it. 

Now, for those of you who do like games.  I chose Paizo's Pathfinder because I noticed that there are other apps on the phone who do cool stuff, but nothing that does what I am going to do.  Yeah, I might run into copyright issues... I don't think so, though.  You see, Pathfinder has a lot of content that is free to everyone.  Some of that content is what I'll be using.  I'll probably need to double check with them before I publish my app, but I'm publishing it for free use, so, I probably won't have issues there.  Maybe after they see it, they'll want to sell it... Fine by me... The point is, I need the experience developing an app, this is free content.  I'll use it, develop the app, show it to them, ask for permission to post... and booyah, DONE~!   If I can't post, well, I'll cry a bit, but I'll still have exp after fighting the final boss, right?  

Okay, so here's my process.  First, I have an app in mind that sounds fun to develop. We'll talk more about exactly what that app is as we go.  That was step one, find an app that people need, or that you want to build.  Step two, figure out what your going to use to develop it. My choice is Xamarin Forms.  I don't know much about it, but I did see a presentation, and that's more than I can say for a lot of other potential things, so, that's what I'm going to do.  Step three, figure out how to use it.  I went to Xamarin.com and discovered that you could build the app in Visual Studio!  So, I started checking out how to use Visual Studio, the page I went to mentioned VS 2012.  I did a little research and guess what!?  You can add Xamarin.Forms straight to Visual Studio 2015!  Here's how (if you didn't install Xamarin with Visual Studio 2015).  Go to your control panel, programs, scroll down to Microsoft Visual Studio Community 2015, highlight, click change, wait... no really, wait..., then click modify, scroll down to Cross Platform Mobile Development, click C#/.NET (Xamarin) 3rd Party, next, update, and then wait forever. If nothing went wrong you'll be able to start a new project in VS 2015 using Xamarin Forms.  If something did go wrong or you need more info, try going here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt299001.aspx#EnableVS

That's the start of this process.  In the next post, most likely next week, I'll talk about how I learn to code in Xamarin.Forms and maybe spill the beans about what my app actually does.  

Wish me luck!