For anyone interested in iPhone application development, there are a few different things required. Coding skills are a must, as is some introduction to the principles of iPhone app development. There are also some proprietary tools from Apple that are required to see an app through entirely.
iPhone applications are written in Objective C. At a minimum, a budding iPhone developer should possess a functional knowledge of how Objective C works. It is possible to write an app without using Objective C, but its capabilities will be severely restricted.
Assuming a person has the requisite programming knowledge, there are a number of books that can be read to gain a better understanding of just how iPhone development works. There are literally dozens of titles on store shelves, so potential developers have a decent choice of what they want to use. There is no set standard for what the best iPhone development book is.
Aside from gaining programming knowledge, iPhone developers also need a handful of different tools in order to get to work. Apple makes several tools available to registered developers. Probably the single most important tool that iPhone developers will need is the Xcode developer tools package. This is a package consisting of a handful of different tools that are the same as the ones Apple uses in their own development.
Included in this bundle of tools is the Xcode IDE, and that is where most development takes place. The Xcode IDE is where an iPhone developer can create his or her code, test it out, and make changes to it. Apple’s own Interface Builder is also included with it. This is a tool that speeds up the iPhone application development process by adding drag-and-drop functionality for basic functions that need to be repeated throughout the development process.
Finally, an iPhone simulator is also included in this iPhone development kit. As the name implies, this tool replicates an iPhone on a person’s computer. The testing and debugging process is sped up considerably with the use of this tool.
Thanks to these tools, Apple iPhone development is actually a very friendly task once a person has the knowledge and tools required to succeed. Unfortunately, apps currently need to be built on a Mac. Xcode is only available on OS X, making iPhone development on Windows a very challenging task. Still, for those with a Mac, iPhone app development can be a breeze.