Learning iOS Programming, 3rd Edition

Chapter 2. Becoming a Developer

Before you start writing code, you’ll need to do some housekeeping. First, you’ll need to install Xcode, Apple’s development environment, as well as the iOS SDK. Both of these are available directly from Apple via the Mac App Store.

However, if you want to distribute your applications, or even just deploy them onto your own device, you will also need to register with Apple as a developer and then enroll in one of the developer programs. You’ll then need to create, download, and install a number of certificates and profiles to allow you to deploy your applications onto your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Warning

Developing applications for iOS requires an Intel Mac, and while it’s possible to develop applications for iOS using OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). it is now very difficult to obtain the tools that allow you to do so. It’s highly recommended that you upgrade to the latest version of OS X, currently OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), before starting development work. This is a requirement if you want to develop applications that make use of iCloud or other features introduced in iOS 5 and iOS 6. We’ll talk about iCloud in more detail later in the book, in Chapter 13.

Let’s get these housekeeping tasks out of the way now so that you can get to the interesting bit—the code—as quickly as possible.

Registering as an iOS Developer

Until recently, the only way to obtain Xcode was to become a registered Apple developer. However, you can now download the current release ...