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.
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.
When I contemplated writing a tutorial on Objective-C, I had to make a fundamental decision. As with other texts on Objective-C, I could write mine to assume that the reader already knew how to write C programs. I could also teach the language from the perspective of using the rich library of routines, such as the Foundation and UIKit frameworks. Some texts also take the approach of teaching how to use the development tools, such as the Mac’s Xcode and the tool formerly known as Interface Builder to design the UI. I had several problems adopting this approach. First, learning the entire C language before learning Objective-C is wrong. C is a procedural language containing many features that are not necessary for programming in Objective-C, especially at the novice level. In fact, resorting to some of these features goes against the grain of adhering to a good object-oriented programming methodology. It’s also not a good idea to learn all the details of a procedural language before learning an object-oriented one. This starts the programmer in the wrong direction, and gives the wrong orientation and mindset for fostering a good object-oriented programming style. Just because Objective-C is an extension to the C language doesn’t mean you have to learn C first. So, I decided neither to teach C first nor to assume prior knowledge of the language. Instead, I decided to take the unconventional approach of teaching Objective-C and the underlying C language as a single integrated language, from an object-oriented programming perspective. The purpose of this book is, as its name implies, to teach you how to program in Objective-C. It does not profess to teach you in detail how to use the development tools that are available for entering and debugging programs, or to provide in-depth instructions on how to develop interactive graphical applications. You can learn all that material in greater detail elsewhere, after you have learned how to write programs in Objective-C. In fact, you will find mastering that material much easier when you have a solid foundation of how to program in Objective-C. This book does not assume much, if any, previous programming experience. In fact, if you are a novice programmer, with some dedication and hard work you should be able to learn Objective-C as your first programming language. Other readers have been successful at this, based on the feedback I have received from the previous editions of this book
