iPad Application Development For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Running in the Simulator

When you run your app, Xcode installs it on the Simulator (or on a real device if you specified a device as the active SDK) and launches it. Using the Hardware menu and your keyboard and mouse, the Simulator mimics most of what a user can do on a real device, albeit with some limitations that I point out shortly.

At first, the Simulator looks like any iPad model would — kind of like what you can see back in Figure 3-11. If you were to click the Home button at the bottom center of the Simulator window once, you’d quit your app. The app would then appear on the Home screen with a standard blank icon. Click the blank icon once to launch the app again.

Interacting with your simulated hardware

Any simulator worth its salt has to be able to duplicate the actions you’d expect from a real device. The Xcode Simulator — no surprise here — can mimic a wide range of activities, all accessed from the Simulator Hardware menu. Your menu options are as follows:

Choose a device. Switch the simulated device to an iPad, any model iPhone, or the Retina display found on iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and fourth-generation iPod touch models.

Choose a version. Switch to a different version of iOS.

Rotate left. Choosing Hardware⇒Rotate Left rotates the Simulator to the left. If the Simulator ...