Getting familiarized with xCode (Part I)

Well, here we are! We have a rough idea of what iOS is and what tools and knowledge we are going to need in order to develop iOS applications. At this point, we are able to understand the integrated development environment (IDE) that will be the focus of our development experience: xCode.

xCode provides all of the tools you need to create and manage your iOS applications. Those applications are projects into xCode, and each project has its source files, the code is built into an executable, and finally run and debug either in iPhone Simulator or on a device. With xCode you have everything you need to design, write, execute, test and build your iPhone applications.

iOS Overview

This post will set the starting point for developing iOS applications. I don’t want to dig into the details, on the contrary, I will give you the general idea, the basis. If we needed more details, I would give them if necesary.

iOS architecture is based on layers and when you develop applications, you work mostly with the higher-level layers, which has the functionality you will need. In that sense, you only need to have a rough idea about the lower-level-layers and go further with the higher ones.

Beginning at the beginning

Having heard about how powerfull iPhone's operating system is, I decided to explore iOS for developing my own applications. Since then, I have been reading tutorials and a huge amount of documentation, learning the basis of a fascinating architecture that has a world of opportunities for a curious developer.

It has been hard work, specially because I thought I would be programming as soon as I read the first pages of some tutorial, but it was a matter of time when I realized it was much more complex and would need time, effort and dedication before writing my first line of code. So, I put a lot of patience in my backpack and started my long journey to iOS.