Reference for RPG programing for iPad?

[harpy]

My history computer programing began and ended in the 80's with my Commodore 64 and a book on how to write text adventures using Basic.

I'd like to be able to do some programing again so that I can make some apps to go on my iPad so I can start getting the kind of use out of it at the game table that I really want to see.

I'd like an app that lets me have RPG tables on hand with the iPad, like a random treasure generator, NPC name generator, etc. I'd just pick the table from a tab, hit the roll icon and have a result spit out. Ideally, tables could be nested into tables, so one roll could cascade into a rather detailed output depending on what happens.

I assume all of this stuff is rather easy to do. My vague memory of "If Then" and "Goto" use seems like it's covering most of what needs to be done in coding, beyond having some tables to reference and a random number generator.

Now the thing is, whenever I pick up books on programming they seem eager to teach me about every other aspect of coding other than this basic stuff. So I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has suggestions on resources that jump right to this kind of material. I don't need to learn to be a programmer, rather I just need to know enough to do this. iPad apps are written in Objective-C from what I understand, but if this kind of programming is similar to other languages then that would be great to see.

[kyoryu]

Obj-C is a strict superset of C. So you can do straight C coding in Obj-C, except where you have to deal with the system libraries.

That being said, learning object-oriented techniques will make programming interactive applications much, much easier. And there's a ton of tutorials available via Apple on writing apps in Obj-C.

The requirement is, of course, that you have a Mac.

[valadil]

For what you describe, you'd probably have an easier time just making a webpage and browsing to it on your iPad. From what I hear, quite a few apps are actually just HTML5 webpages that run inside their own window.

Also, I don't mean to be discouraging, but you'll probably have better luck on a programming forum than a gaming one.

[Ashtar]

The best source is to follow the iTunes U Stanford iOS Programming (CS193p) lectures and slides. That should get you started at least. Also, the course's homepage.

Apple has tons of material in their developer section on the web, also a lot of PDFs on iBooks from the Authors Apple and Apple Developer Publications.

Finally, get XCode and start, anything. Maybe just try to do something really simple first.