Chapter 1. Getting Started
Welcome to Learning Swift! In this book, we’ll take you from knowing nothing about the Swift programming language to building a full-featured app for iOS 11. Along the way, we’ll explore the libraries, frameworks, and features available to you as a developer of software for iPhones and iPads. We’ll be covering practical solutions to common problems, as well as the details of the Swift language itself.
We’ll begin with some important setup work that needs to be done before you can start using the developer tools. In particular, we’ll take a look at the Apple Developer Program, and how to get your account set up so that you can build your app on a device.
Note
This book assumes that you’ve got access to two things: a Mac and an iOS device of some kind (that is, an iPhone or iPad).
The Mac is mandatory; without it, you can’t run Xcode, which is the tool for writing your code, designing your interfaces, and building and running your code. Your Mac will need to be capable of running Xcode 9.2 or newer, which means that it needs to run macOS 10.12 or higher.
The iOS device is not absolutely mandatory, but you won’t be able to follow all of the book without it, because the app that we’re making in this book makes use of hardware features that aren’t present in the iOS simulator. The device you use needs to be able to run iOS 11 or later.
Xcode
Xcode is the development environment used for all development work done on Apple platforms. As you work through this ...