So I want to learn how to Make apps, Where should I start???

[TriForcer]

Apps, Games

 

[Don Geronimo]

Microsoft has some pretty nice Apps from Start to Finish on their developer site, plus Visual Studio Community is available for free. That should get you started nicely with your choice of HTML/JavaScript, or C#/XAML.

Alternatively, there's also App Studio, TouchDevelop, or Project Sienna for considerations.

 

[KarmaEcrivain94]

Get an app idea, and try and get to it by searching for any problems you run into along the way. Think logically, and it should get simpler after a month or two. I suggest you start coding in vb.net. It's simpler than c# and easier to learn, but once you're used to it, switching to c# will be way simpler.
Also, you need to get the basic ideas of how a program works.
You have the User Interface (UI), programmed in xaml, but Visual studio has a, um, Visual editor, so you don't really need to know xaml. The controls (all the things such as buttons, text boxes, switches, etc...) then "communicate" with the background code, that isn't part of what you can see. Each control has a set of events (for a button, things such as "pressed", which fire when you press the button) and you can associate these events with the background code. So for example:

Private Sub Handles Button1.Pressed
Textbox1.Text=("Button pressed!")
End Sub

Means that when you press Button1, the Textbox1 will show "Button pressed!"


I have done a very basic simplified explanation, but that will already help you quite a bit to get started. Good luck

 

[Olander418]

This is what i did:
1. Downloaded visual studio for windows desktop, visual studio is great because you can position the controls without knowing how to code.
2. Started coding some text editor, searching on google how to implement the things I wanted.
3. After getting some experience in coding I started making games in XNA. This suits you well because XNA code does run on a Windows Phone.
4. Then after a while I started to look in to WP apps, which are quite similar to windows applications. I recommend a tutorial by Bob Tabor.

I also recommend that you start coding in C#, not in Visual Basic. Mainly because Visual Basic is not supported in XNA.

 

[KarmaEcrivain94]

This is what i did:
1. Downloaded visual studio for windows desktop, visual studio is great because you can position the controls without knowing how to code.
2. Started coding some text editor, searching on google how to implement the things I wanted.
3. After getting some experience in coding I started making games in XNA. This suits you well because XNA code does run on a Windows Phone.
4. Then after a while I started to look in to WP apps, which are quite similar to windows applications. I recommend a tutorial by Bob Tabor.

I also recommend that you start coding in C#, not in Visual Basic. Mainly because Visual Basic is not supported in XNA.

It depends. If it's to make apps, vb.net is simpler to start off with, but yeah, if it's for games, then you kind of need c#.

Also, if it's for apps, please read the design guidelines very closely.
One should not be able to tell that it's your "first app"

 

[nmercy]

If you're a fresh start it really depends on what you want to do, apps or games or both.

In all cases start with C#. Download a copy of Visual Studio Community and head over to Microsoft Virtual Academy ? Free IT Training, Online Learning of Microsoft Technologies and start running through some of the introductory C# courses.

At this point I would take a "break" and play around with Microsoft App Studio as this will give you very quick apps to play around with and learn general app design philosophies without having to delve too far into the code behind.

Once you've done that it's time to branch. If you want to program apps, if I were starting fresh, I would probably switch over to Xamarin as this seems to be a direction Microsoft is supporting and allows you to make Windows, Android, and iOS apps all while using the same platform. There may be some other requirements for developing items other than Windows, but it's all present for you.

If you want to make games, I would jump towards Unity, as once again this is well supported and allows for creating apps on Windows, iOS, and Android.

Also, don't get discouraged, there is a ton to learn and you will constantly be learning... that being said for now, only learn the stuff as you need it otherwise it can get overwhelming and, unless you're actually using it, you will most likely forget it by the time you need it.

 

[Don Geronimo]

Once you've done that it's time to branch. If you want to program apps, if I were starting fresh, I would probably switch over to Xamarin...

Not to hijack the topic but a Xamarin question. It still costs money to develop using Xamarin.Forms, right? Would their free option, despite the limitations, allow you to still create a C# Xamarin app, but use XAML to design the UX?

 

[nmercy]

Yeah, it appears so... for some reason I thought they had gone to a similar model as unity or that Windows/Windows Phone was free. There does appear to be a starter edition that allows for 64k of user code which might get you through the learning and some simple apps.