Objective-C® For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Creating Your First Program

In This Chapter

• Working with the Software Development Kit

• Setting up your first project

• Building and running your first program

• Getting up and running with the Xcode Text Editor

• Knowing what's on the CD

In Chapter 1, I provide some of the background context you need to know in order to write computer programs, and I complete that discussion in Chapter 3. While there is still more you need to know in order to write good programs, it's time for a break. In this chapter, you get a taste of what programming is about.

But before you do that, you need to go through some administrative matters, such as downloading the Software Development Kit (SDK) that you use to write programs. But to do that, you first have to become a registered Apple Developer.

Getting Started with the Software Development Kit

Everything you need to program in Objective-C for the Mac or iPhone is included in something known as the software development kit, or SDK. It contains Xcode (and some tools); frameworks and libraries; and iPhone OS, Mac OS X, and Xcode documentation — in short, everything you need to develop applications for the Mac and iPhone. Once you have it installed on your computer, you are ready to begin developing that killer app you have been thinking of.

Note

This book is designed to teach you how to use Objective-C to write both Mac OS X and iPhone applications. I try to alternate which comes first in each discussion (just to be fair). Deciding which platform you want ...