Although it doesn't matter what programming language you've studied, you do need to be familiar with the following basic concepts:
• A literal is a piece of data stored in memory, such as a name, an address, or a phone number. It's immutable, meaning it can't 'be changed.
• A variable is a named pointer to data in your program that can change.
• An array is a collection of data, usually of the same type. You can access each memberof a collection by its index (place in the collection). In Java, Objective-C, and C#, arrays have anfixed, declared length, and all array members are of the same data type.
• A string is a collection of character data. Strings are immutable in Java, Objective-C, and C#, the programming languages used in this book.
• Methods and functions are blocks of program code that run when they're called. They're the verbs of a program and represent what a program does.
• Parameters are data valu es passed to other parts of a program, usually methods and
functions.
• Properties are data associated "'th the objects of a program and can be compared with
adjectives. They describe what an object i" and does.
• Loops are mechanism'i for repeating a set of programming instruction.a;: u ntil some
condition is met
• Conditional statements are tests in a program that evaluate to true or fuLse.
In addition, you should know that a platform generally provides a software development kit (SOK) and an integrated development envirornment (IDE) to build apps. An SDK, which is the underlying engine of the IDE, includes all the platlOrm's libraries an app needs to access. It's more basic than an IDE because it doesn't usually have graphica l tools. The SD Ks used in this book, however, include extensive d ocumentation to help developers build apps. You should also be familiar with at least one I DE, such as NetBeans, Eclipse, PHPStorm, Xcode, and so forth, and be able to follow the standard development process in any IDE: write, compile, run, and debug.