Getting Started with App Development
iOS development doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, you need only two tools to develop iOS apps:
A recent Mac. Although you can use any recent Mac, some models and specifications are more productive than others. You can find more details later in this chapter.
A copy of Xcode. Xcode, shown in Figure 1.1, is Apple’s app development toolkit. It has much in common with a standard Mac application, but it has some unusual extra features you’ll learn about later in this book. Xcode is available free from the Mac App Store.
1.1 Xcode is a big, complex, powerful application with many features. Fortunately, you don’t need to master everything it does to develop apps successfully.
Two further assets are optional, but very useful:
An iOS device. You might expect this to be essential, but it isn’t. Xcode includes the Simulator—a tool that can run and test iOS apps in an OS X mockup of either an iPhone, shown in Figure 1.2, or an iPad.
1.2 The Simulator ...
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