Native iOS development

This article aims to provide understanding on what is iOS and what should be required to start native iOS development. Though iOS development can be done using cross-platform technologies. This article focuses on setting up development environment only for native iOS development.

Introduction & Brief History

So first thing first. What is iOS?

Though you can find many explanations on the internet. In very simple terms iOS known as iPhone OS is an operating system created and developed by Apple that runs on iPhone, iPod-Touch, iPad and iWatch devices. Launched with the very first version in 2007, iOS 14 was released on 16 September 2020. Apple launches a new version of iOS every year in around September.

That’s it for the introduction part. Let’s move to the next part which is setting up the development environment.

Development environment setup

1. Get MAC OS: Before we directly jump to understand the setting up development environment. Let’s make one thing clear that we will need a computer with Mac OS.

We can get MAC OS by some of the below ways.

1. Purchase official apple hardware: You can purchase Mac-book pro, Mac-book Air, Mac mini or iMac which are Apple hardware. Mac-book pro and Mac-book Air are laptops whereas Mac mini is just a CPU machine and iMac is Apple desktop computer. Though Apple hardware might be costly as compared to other development hardwares(likeWindows or Linux) but if you are really serious about starting iOS development you can start by purchasing a Mac Mini which will be the cheapest among above mentioned Apple hardware. Also if you are going with official Apple hardware you will not face any problems with Mac OS and iOS future updates. Note: Whatever Apple hardware you buy just make sure it has an SSD if you want really good performance.
2. Install MAC OS on Windows or Linux using virtualisation. So there are many virtualisation softwares available on like VirtualBox which can enable installation of MAC OS on non apple hardware. Though you can try this method to start iOS development initially. However at the later stage you will be stressed due to performance and updation issues.

2. Get an Apple ID: You will need an Apple ID for below step 3 and further in development. An Apple ID can be created for free(https://appleid.apple.com/account). To start iOS development you don’t need to pay anything except if you are planning to buy new Apple hardware. Starting iOS development is free of cost. However testing and releasing apps on the app store involves some costs that we will discuss in our upcoming articles.

3. Install SDK and IDE: To learn any kind of development we need at least 2 things. SDK or Software development kit and IDE or Integrated Development Environment installed.

For example, If you want to learn JAVA you need JDK(Java Development Kit) & JRE(Java Runtime Environment) and Eclipse or Netbeans or any other IDE. If you want to learn .NET you need to install .NET runtime and visual studio. If you want to learn PHP you need to install PHP and one of its IDEs.

Similarly for iOS we need to install iOS SDK and its IDE Xcode. These both come together in one bundle. So if you install Xcode(https://developer.apple.com/xcode/) iOS sdk is installed with it.

So that’s it if you have got MAC OS and installed Xcode on it you have fulfilled basic requirements to start iOS development. As a next step you can find many free iOS tutorials on the internet which can help you move further with actual development.

That’s it for this topic. Thanks for reading. We hope you find this article useful and start with your iOS development. If you have any queries related to this topic or iOS, Objective C and Swift. Please write us at [email protected] or direct message us on instagram at conficle(instagram username).

Also keep watching this space for upcoming articles on iOS development, software development and technology concepts.