Getting Started With iPhone Development

Question

What are some key tools needed when you are first starting out in developing your first iPhone application?

1. Software Tools
2. IDEs
3. Tool Chains
4. Blog Posts
5. Etc.

Answer 1

http://developer.apple.com/iphone

You can get the iPhone SDK from there which includes the IDE, debugger, iPhone emulator, etc.

Answer 2

You can develop for the iPhone purely using Open Web technology like jQuery or Ra-Ajax (Disclaimer; I work with Ra-Ajax) and as long as you don't need something really fancy implemented like Photo Shop 2.0 or games I'd strongly encourage you to STICK to Open Web.

By following Open Standards you can even mostly keep the exact same codebase for both your iPhone version and "everything else"...

Answer 3

The IDE, which is part of the iPhone SDK download, is XCode 3.1. You need to run on an Apple Mac using an Intel CPU and running Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard".

You'll need to learn the programming language Objective-C.

The main library that you'll use is called Cocoa-Touch, a variant of the Cocoa framework used on Apple's regular computers.

A good starting point is the sample projects, documentation and video tutorials at the Apple website that brd6644 mentioned.

Good luck! :-)

Answer 4

My biggest hurdle is getting a Mac. Anyone know a way around that?

Answer 5

These aren't totally iPhone specific, but for some general background:

• Programming in Objective C is a good Objective C book, though it doesn't particularly go into any of the Apple-specific things you'll need...
• Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X is a good book on the Cocoa environment, which you'll need for iPhone development.

That's a good start.

Answer 6

I too am looking to start coding the for iPhone, and had never coded in Objective-C or worked with the Cocoa framework. I recently ordered Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass and have found it to be an excellent starting point.

Answer 7

I found this tutorial very helpful: appsamuck

Good luck!

Answer 8

The Pragmatic Programmers have got a free Getting started with Xcode and Interface Builder screencast available which should give you a good feel for what iPhone development is like.

Answer 9

In my opinion, the best way to begin is with the Stanford lectures. This is a course, with the first step on Objective-C, and numerous key subject on the Cocoa-Touch framework and the way to publish App on the store.

You'll find lot of useful resources.

Answer 10

Once you get used to Objective-C, Cocoa and XCode, I highly recommand you The iPhone Developer's Cookbook.

It contains all the basic stuff you'll want to do inside your iPhone App, with a lot of clean code to start with.

Answer 11

Getting started with iPhone Development Tutorial---- iPhone development guide in details with videos to step up your Xcode and help you to submit your application to apple store. http://adeem.me/blog/iphone-development-guide/

Answer 12

I've been trying to immerse myself in the Mac world to pick this stuff up (been a .NET/Windows dev for years), but it's a huge paradigm shift. I just got Learn Objective–C on the Mac. It's very good so far. Also the Mobile Orchard podcast has been very informative.

Answer 13

Also:

1. Make sure you figure out how to use some of the debugger functionality first. This will save you a lot of time and headaches :) At least set the breakpoint on objc_exception_throw as described in http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?DebuggingTechniques

2. You might find Three20 library useful too as it provides you useful "as-seen-in-other-apps" UI bits so you don't need to reimplement them yourself. 320 is a bit underdocumented though :(