Interestingly (but inevitably) as a java developer who first learned Android and then moved to iOS, the sticking points he mentions are exactly the same ones I found, but the other way around.
I think Eclipse makes sense if you think like a java coder, Xcode not so much, and Objective-C will fry your mind...
That said, Eclipse and the Android SDK is a pain to install even if you are a java wizard.
"That said, Eclipse and the Android SDK is a pain to install even if you are a java wizard." Why? I just followed Google's instructions and it was breeze to install Android SDK...
My first install went pretty well. Then I upgraded my Linux box and installing it didn't go well. So I upgraded to the newest Eclipse and it worked okay.
Then I upgrade Eclipse and it broke, so I went back.
Then I tried to install it on Windows and it was so painful that I just gave up and remoted into my Linux box.
Recently, I tried Windows again and it went like a dream.
Installing Eclipse and Android SDK should be easy right now, but they weren't always.
>That said, Eclipse and the Android SDK is a pain to install even if you are a java wizard.
Really? I don't remember it being too bad, and I didn't start learning java until I had them installed! Although this was just a year ago, so perhaps older versions were less friendly.
ObjC's main "frying" factor is that it uses a different (and to my mind, superior) set of object-oriented patterns as primary abstractions. For example, subclassing is much less common in ObjC than in Java, preferring to use the less complex delegation pattern as opposed to subclass-and-implement patterns for behavior extensions.
Another problem some people have is that ObjC brings to the table all the pain of C. You've got memory management and bounds checking and unsafe casts all dumped into your lap. It can be pretty painful if you're not experienced in C, C++, or ASM programming.
I might be biased as well since I learned smalltalk+ruby about the same time prior to objective c. I personally find smalltalk derived OO much less painful than the java/c++ counterparts. But thats just my opinion, they both get the job done in the end.
I'm curious how it fries your mind exactly? Fries like Haskell in that it makes you learn different paradigms or fries as in challenges base assumptions on how things like OO/etc... work?
I think Eclipse makes sense if you think like a java coder, Xcode not so much, and Objective-C will fry your mind...
That said, Eclipse and the Android SDK is a pain to install even if you are a java wizard.