Are you an App Developer once youāve created an app and submitted it into the App Store? Or are you an App Developer when you get your first paycheck for writing an App for someone? Does it take a degree to become an official App Developer? How many of you are self-taught in App Development like I am?
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Youāre a published app developer if you have an app on the store. Youāre a professional app developer if someone pays you money. You donāt need any qualifications to do either of those things, but if you havenāt got an app on the store and no-oneās yet paid you money to develop an app, then a potential employer may consider your qualifications as part of your job application. But I think being an app developer just means you develop apps, just as being a writer means you write and being a musician means you play an instrument. Thereās no āofficialnessā about it; itās not as though someone can look your name up on a list and say, āyep, theyāre an App Developer, it says so in the registryā. Job titles are subjective too; Iāve read articles which offer some kind of heuristic to decide whether youāre a junior developer, an intermediate or a seniorā¦ but ultimately itās all just what you can do to demonstrate your potential to someone who might want to hire you.
Thanks narrativium for your response! I donāt think I could say Iām an App developer by your criteria, but I must confess, I love playing around with Core Graphics and Iād love to learn more about bringing animation to an App (basically turn it from a power point presentation to an application that feels more natural).
Are you an App developer? What kind of computer stuff are you into?
Iām now a bit curious about why you think you donāt qualifyā¦ youāre writing code. Intending for that code to become part of a paid or published app isnāt a requirement.
I am lucky enough to be a professional and published app developer. I have two degrees in computer science but both of them were before the iPhone was released, so app development is a skill Iāve learned while working. Iām very mathsy; I like data structures and algorithms, so more the rules side of games development than the aesthetics, but any information needs to be displayed so recently Iāve been working on custom controls and layers, and Iāve started the new RW SceneKit book.
Okay, once soon a time, I made a graph that looked like a āspeedometerā and my husband used it for his texting speed app for the results page. Thereās no animation to it. No fireworks. It may as well be a slide in a power point. And I learned how to code it from a RW tutorial 
(love the tutorials here over anywhere else) I donāt count myself as an app developer because thereās nothing in the App Store that has my name on it. I view myself more as the person who comes in to pin the flower on the groom before you send him out. (If that makes any sense)
Do I enjoy coding? Depends on what weāre working on. Do I wish to increase my skills, absolutely. I also enjoy talking with people who know more developer stuff than me (which is everyone else). BTW, happy Easter to you and yours.
When you hit ābuild and runā after 4 hours of writing code without checking it, and it actually does what was intended.
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standing ovation That is some pretty impressive work! How in the Milky Way do you get to that good!