QUICK GUIDE TO GETTING STARTED AS AN IOS DEVELOPER IN 2022

Have you got a Mac? If yes, you currently own practically all of the tools need to begin creating apps for iPhones, iPads, and other devices running the iOS operating system. I'll go through everything you need to know about setting up a development environment, creating an app, and releasing it to users in this article.

Apps for iOS can also be written using the?Objective-C?programming language. Objective-C was the only supported language for writing iOS app during the time between when the first iOS SDK was released in 2008 and when Swift was released in 2014. You will often come across Objective-C code in older iOS development resources, and legacy iOS apps maintained by larger companies are often written in Objective-C. It is hard to find up-to-date resources about Objective-C development and I strongly urge you to focus on Swift first.

Xcode?is the integrated development environment (IDE) used to write, run, debug, test, and distribute iOS software. You can?download it here?for free from the Mac App Store. You will need an?Apple ID?in order to download and use Xcode.

To write iOS software you need to know more than just the Swift language; you also need to understand the tools and frameworks. Apple’s?Getting Started with Xcode?video is a great introduction to the development environment.

If you prefer your tutorials to be web-based instead of video-based then a good option would be to work through Apple’s?Learn to Make Apps with SwiftUI?tutorial series.

All three of these resources use Apple’s new SwiftUI framework to build user interfaces. However, a lot of existing iOS content you find online will be based on the UIKit framework.

To run, debug and test iOS software you can use either an iOS simulator running on your Mac, or an iOS device connected to your Mac. The simulators and connected devices are?managed using Xcode.

The most common way to distribute iOS software is through the?App Store. There are a lot of guidelines to follow, however, and it is entirely possible that your app may not pass?App Review?on the first attempt, or ever.

Fortunately, other distribution methods are available. For instance, you can use Ad Hoc distribution to distribute your app to up to 100 specific iOS devices. This method is tedious, however, if you don’t own all of the devices that you want to distribute the app onto.

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Another method is?TestFlight,?a free service from Apple that allows you to distribute your app, along with updates, to up to 10,000 beta testers of your choosing, whom you invite by email address. If you just want to share your app with family and friends and don’t want to bother with App Store review then TestFlight distribution is going to be the easiest option.

I hope that was helpful. There is so much more to learn, but that should get you started.

When you?are?ready to learn more, the most authoritative source of information about specific iOS technologies will almost always be?the Apple developer videos. Hearing directly from the engineers who built the technologies is often invaluable.