02. Getting More Information: The Forum

At this point, your computer is probably busy downloading and installing Xcode. This is a good time to explore a key resource that will help you get through this course: the forum!

Note: If you are an Intro to Programming student, you can skip this lesson. And for reference, the link to the BiOS forum category for IPND students is here!

The forum is the place to go when you get stuck or have a question about a particular concept. There’s a high probability that another student had the same question as you, and you may find an answer right away! If not, another student may know the answer. If you have signed up for the Beginning iOS Nanodegree, there are also Udacity coaches and forum mentors on call who are ready to help you get unstuck.

Without further delay, let’s take a look at the forum! The first place we’ll go is the Broadcast category.

The Broadcast category contains topics that are of general interest to all Beginning iOS students. There is a quick guide to using the discussion forum, which will help you set up notifications and format your posts for readability. There’s also a handy Forum Directory, which contains links to the individual forum categories for each part of the course. We suggest you bookmark this forum directory now, as it is a convenient entry point for the Beginning iOS forum. Finally, the Broadcast category is where Udacity staff will announce releases of new content, as well as updates to existing content.

There are two more categories that you should know about. The Café category is a place where you can get to know your fellow students, organize meetups, and network. It’s also a place to ask general questions about Udacity. Finally, the Technical Roadblocks category is where you can post about general technical issues (e.g. broken links, problems with Xcode, etc.). In any category, the Activity column will tell you when the last post was made for a particular topic.

QUESTION:

To give you some practice using the forums, we’re going to send you on a little scavenger hunt. Complete the following items now! For each item, give the answer and the name of the forum category where you found it.

1. In the Operators and Expressions lesson from Part 1 of Beginning iOS, what is the name of the fourth concept?
2. When posting code on the forum, how do you put it in a nicely formatted block?
3. What is the most recent update to Beginning iOS?
4. Find a recent question a student asked about Pirate Fleet 1, the project you will complete at the end of Part 1!
5. Write a few sentences introducing yourself to other Beginning iOS students. Some possible topics: Why are you interested in iOS programming? What are you hoping to learn from the beginning iOS course? What are some hobbies you enjoy? Post your introduction in the "Get to know your classmates" topic in the Café category!

How did it go? Hopefully you’re more familiar with the forums now, and you’ll know just where to go if you have a question. (And, hopefully your Xcode install is just about finished!)