Start Developing iOS Apps Today

Start Developing iOS Apps Today provides the perfect starting point for iOS development. On your Mac, you can create iOS apps that run on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. View this guide’s four short modules as a gentle introduction to building your first app—including the tools you need and the major concepts and best practices that will ease your path.

Start Developing iOS Apps Today

The first three modules each end with a tutorial, where you’ll implement what you’ve learned. At the end of the last tutorial, you’ll have created a simple to-do list app.

After you’ve built your first app in this guide and are considering your next endeavor, read the fourth module. It explores the technologies and frameworks you might consider adopting in your next app. You’ll be on your way to keeping your customers engaged and looking forward to the next great thing.

Even though this guide takes you through every step of building a simple app, to benefit most it helps to be acquainted with computer programming in general and with object-oriented programming in particular.

Get the Tools

Before you can start developing great apps, set up a development environment to work in and make sure you have the right tools.

To develop iOS apps, you need:

A Mac computer running OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or later

Xcode

iOS SDK

Xcode is Apple’s integrated development environment (IDE). Xcode includes a source editor, a graphical user interface editor, and many other features. The iOS SDK extends the Xcode toolset to include the tools, compilers, and frameworks you need specifically for iOS development.

You can download the latest version of Xcode for free from the App Store on your Mac. (You need OS X version 10.8 to download Xcode. If you have an earlier version of OS X, you need to upgrade.) The iOS SDK is included with Xcode.

To download the latest version of Xcode

Open the App Store app on your Mac (by default it’s in the Dock).

In the search field in the top-right corner, type Xcode and press the Return key.

Click Free  .

Xcode is downloaded into your /Applications directory.