I'm very keen to learn Iphone apps development. Can you experts give me some tips as to which programing tool I should learn? tools I should install [of course , I prefer free tools]?, operating system I need? [I only have windows xp and unix flavours on my Personal laptop]. Do I need to have Iphone to test my apps? [poor guy, I don't own a Iphone].
Thanks to all who responded , every message seems very informative and useful (+1 to all), I will go through each and every suggestion
You need to learn Objective C, you'll need XCode, and you will use Mac OS X (on a Macintosh) and you'll need the iPhone SDK.
You can test with the iPhone simulator.
This will get you started using the tools, etc.
Stanford has put out an online course on iPhone development. It is free from iTunes, and will take you through basic Objective-C and iPhone concepts. Link: http://itunes.stanford.edu/
tools I should install [of course , I prefer free tools]?,
Xcode is free (as in beer). But to actually deploy apps on the device you need to pay $99/yr to Apple to enroll in the iPhone dev program.
operating system I need? [I only have windows xp and unix flavours on my Personal laptop].
You need Mac OS X 10.6.
Do I need to have Iphone to test my apps? [poor guy, I don't own a Iphone].
Buy an iPod Touch then. The iPhone Simulator accompanying with the iPhone SDK may work, but won't reflect the true performance on the device.
There are also alternatives such as MonoTouch which works outside of Mac OS X, but is recently banned.
You can also jailbreak the device to avoid the need to enroll in the iPhone dev program just to test on the device. But to submit to AppStore you still need that $99.
Unfortunately, you'll have a tough time with this given your current toolchain. You definitely need a Mac (or a Hackintosh, which is still not cheap), and you really ought to have an iPhone to do development. (There is a simulator, and you can run your apps on it, but it isn't nearly as capable as a phone and doesn't give you the ability to test for things like slow network/no network connection for performance. The multi-touch is also not as capable as the real thing; if I remember correctly the phone can handle 5 touch-points while the sim can handle 2.)
This is one downside to development on the iPhone; the startup cost is somewhat prohibitive compared to Android. However, you have a massive market with the iPhone and it's about the greatest user experience in the smartphone market right now. You can read more about it from Apple, searching Google, and there are loads of books like this.
Xcode, Apple's coding environment, as well as the whole suite of development tools, are free from their website with a simple sign-up. These are only for OS X though. Here they are.
It may be hard to develop without Mac or at least Mac OS X. (I'm not sure you can install that on a PC... Perhaps I'm wrong though)
If u dont have an MAC u could use a Virtual PC with MAC OS X on it. and i would pref you to give this little Virtual PC around 2-4 Gig of Ram for stable and fast working.
im using VMWare and it works well :)
I'm also a "beginner". I would like to recommend this book: Kochan - Programming in Objective-C 2.0 2e
Its a good book with clear examples, and for me very fast to understand. After that this video tutorial: iPhone SDK Essential Training from Lynda.com
And of course you need a mac, and a devellopment licence if you want to test on your device.
To learn iPhone app Development you must have strong command over Objective –C and C/C++. Cocoa Touch is the programming framework driving user interaction on iOS. Also Xcode and the iOS SDK are available together as a free download on the Mac App Store. With the help of which you can start to learn iPhone app development. If you will face any problem or get strut anywhere you can search tutorials available on the web. You problem will definitely get solved.
Technically speaking you don't need to program in Objective-C. The new NDA for section 3.3.1 for the SDK might force you though. Otherwise you can use tools like Unity3D and Corona. If you are developing games that is. With Unity3D you could actually start development on a PC, and get a Mac and iPhone later and target the app for iPhone.
Things like Unity3D and Corona gives you their own IDE's and tools package. They are considerably easier to use for creating games than Apple's SDK. And allow you to use simple scripting languages. However for regular App development I think nothing beats xCode and Objective-C.
There's a lot of books out there for iPhone development, but you don't even need to buy one to get started. The Apple Developer sites iPhone Dev Center contains both reference material, and Getting Started guides, including coverage of Objective-C and some Mac development fundamentals like Cocoa and Foundation, which will come in handy on the iPhone OS too.
If you already know Objective-C, the Head First iPhone Development book is a great read that gets you writing concrete apps quickly, although it's not suitable for someone new to programming in general. For a more thorough and comprehensive start, you might want to check out Apress' books, including 'Beginning iPhone 3 Development' and 'Lean Objective-C on the Mac'.
For sure you need to have a Mac, and I think you really ought to have an iPhone to do the development. Of course you can find a simulator, but it won’t reflect the true performance on the device.
What about tools you need to install an Xcode which is free (to download it you can from Apple’s website). But, to actually deploy the app as far as I know you will have to pay $99/yr to Apple to enroll in its developers’ program.
If you're still exciting about creating your iOS apps, teamtreehouse.com offers nice courses where you can learn Swift and Objective C
