I have been a self taught programmer for 20 years. I have a VB6 program that has been (and still is) actively being sold and used. I really need to get a modern tool kit under my belt so I can create an app that will either integrate with or replace my existing product. I have tried to start working with new tools on and off for at least 5 years. This last attempt I have been trying to break ground for around 6 months and I’m getting nowhere.
I need the app to work in iOS or Android. People use both, so why would anyone write something that only works on one? I have been trying to find a platform that works with both. Not too long ago I found React Native which sounded promising. Their site suggested I should know Javascript so I found Codecademy and started learning Javascript. The lessons were good and I felt like I was making progress but it was getting complex (imo) and there was not one single mention of how you put a textbox on a screen, get the user’s data, and save it. I tried to just get started with React Native thinking I could piece it together but after days of trying to get some cryptic random-seeming pieces of god-knows-what installed I couldn’t make heads or tails of what I was supposed to do and nothing I learned about Javascript was anywhere in sight.
I then found out about Xamarin. I have had some success with VB.net so I thought something in Visual Studio might be a workable solution. It suggested I learn C# so I’ve been trying to learn C#. It’s closer to VB in syntax so it seemed like a good way to go. I’ve tried experimenting with a new Xamarin project and I still don’t see how you so much as begin to create an interface, never mind start writing anything useful. In a nutshell I need to have users fill in a bunch of data and I need to save it, manipulate it, and output it on demand. That’s a pretty basic concept right? How do you create a texbox? 5 years, never found an answer to THAT.
I have probably hundreds of hours spent just trying to get the very beginnings of an understanding of how web and phone programming is done and I still haven’t taken one single step forward! It’s so furiously frustrating! Every time I try to watch a tutorial either 2 minutes in they say to click something that doesn’t exist on my screen, or they reference 10 things that I have no idea what they’re talking about. I simply cannot find a way to actually START learning to develop an app. help