[Michael Hepples]

Hello everybody!
So I've been browsing around the Blackberry website and landed in the "Developers" section......saw the massive amounts of tools and programs one can download to create Apps.....
I think that it's really neat that "anyone" can get the tools to do so, but my question is: How hard is it really to create an App??? I do realize that it depends on what exactly you're trying to do, but is it possible for someone with pretty good computer and software knowledge but no "official" certifications or software programming training to actually create an App like the light sabor App or other "simple" Apps like that????
I'm just curious and maybe some of you guys that have created Apps or tinkered with the development tools could maybe tell us newbies how extensive App creation is.......
Thanks in advance, and I hope to learn some things as I am very interested in this Geekie stuff :-)

Excellent starter for you would be to head down to the book store and grab "Head First Java". I grabbed it about a month ago, and skimming along nicely, with minimal programming experience. There is a lot more to learn once you have Java down, but hey, it's a start.

[epicdraws]

I could not agree more! You either build a simple Hello World or a freaking enterprise app! would be nice to see something that would be interesting to follow along with, that after completing we could then load onto our phones.

Perhaps you guys missed all the samples? Sure, Hello World is one of them, but they more or less have a sample for each non-obvious and interesting API that should at least get you started. The point of those samples is to help people who know how to program use their new APIs. It assumes you know the rest.

Good luck!

[epicdraws]

good luck, i tried and failed. i already knew how to progam first too, i cant imagine trying to do bb apps with no programming experience, i would say its close to impossible, but not 100% impossible. just learning programming concepts, especially Object oriented programming is going to be tough, then java which isnt the easiet and then rim's api's and there whole programming "way" which is probably the hardest out there.

i would be surprised if you could do the light saber app in less than a year. its going to take that long to learn how to program.

BBA, rim already has tutorials and walktrhoughs for their sample apps, it doesnt come with them, but its on their website, you might want to check that out before you waste your time, i used them but still had trouble.

all my exerpeicne was in visual studio, where if you want a box to type in, you drag it on the screen, put it where you want it, and make it the size you want, etc. what i never figured out and what might surprise you is that this does not exist at all in making bb apps. its 100% done in code, no visual stuff at all. this is what makes it so hard.

Now do you see why some of the developers who do have the training/experience to do this like to charge tiny amounts?