Mac App Development Tutorial

See full list on raywenderlich.com. Download the latest version of Xcode on your Mac free from the App Store. To download the latest version of Xcode. Open the App Store app on your Mac (by default it’s in the Dock). In the search field in the top-right corner, type Xcode and press the Return key. The Xcode app shows up as the first search result. Click Get and then click. Configuring Your Developer Account for Apple Pay. IOS, MacOS; Apple Pay is the easy, secure, and private way to pay for physical goods and services within apps and websites. Find out how you can configure your Apple Developer Account to start using the Apple Pay APIs. Building Sticker Packs. IOS; Turn your artwork into a sticker pack for. A Beginner’s Guide To Whether To Shut Down or Sleep Your Mac; Run Personal Automation Shortcuts Automatically In iOS 14; How To Add Custom Text In iMovie; Share a Name and Profile Picture or Animoji With Others in iOS 13 Messages; 4 Ways To Type Superscript and Subscript On a Mac; Using Personal Automations To Play a Wake-Up Song, Podcast Or.


According to Apple, “Swift is a robust and intuitive programming language created by Apple for building apps for iOS, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. It’s designed to give developers more freedom than ever. Swift is easy to use and open-source, so anyone with an idea can create something incredible.”

Because of Swift’s popularity and power, the world of academia has created courses teaching the development software. Our compilation of tutorials deals with web-based tutorials. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that institutions (like Stanford University and Plymouth University) that have started teaching Swift offer free courses oniTunes U.

It’s worthwhile to hop over to iTunes and give those free courses a look after you make your way through the resources we’ve listed for you here.

Get started with Swift by downloadingXcode for free from the Mac Apple Store. Apple calls it “the Mac app used to build every other Mac app and every iOS app, too.” Basically, it has everything you need for the full iOS app development experience (except for the experience itself, that comes as you work with the app… wink).

Once you’re set up with the software you need, it’s time for you to get to learning! This list has a number of resources focusing on various iOS app-designing topics, for a variety of designer skill levels (but we’re mostly focusing on beginners). There are some great resources on here to help get you started.

Don’t be afraid to take your search back to the web for harder tutorials as your skills develop.

Where to Learn iOS Game Making

1. Apple

Did you see this one coming? You likely did. Apple offers “The Definitive Book” since, you know, they created the software… You can download the guide for free in the iBooks store. They also have a “resource” section, which includes presentations, sample codes, guides, and video tutorials.

What’s more, if you like to learn by doing, and you have an iPad, Appleannounced a really cool iPad app for you earlier this year: Swift Playgrounds. Swift Playgrounds is a “learn while you play” kind of app. You actually learn the basics of Swift as a way to solve puzzles in the Playground. Who knew learning could be fun?

The other resource Apple offers is the Swift Blog, which will keep you up to date on any new software news.

2. Swiftris

Have you ever heard of that little game, made a long time ago, where you try to place falling bricks of different shapes to avoid leaving gaps? Yes, we’re talking about Tetris! We’re so proud of you for knowing that. We used to dump hours upon frustrating hours into that game on our old-school, brick-shaped Game Boys…

Then we’d experience that funny phenomenon where, if you play too much tetris, your brain keeps looking for the brick patterns long after you’ve put the Game Boy down. Everything looks like “L” bricks or “T” bricks or square bricks. The mind is a funny thing.

You might be thinking “wow, they’ve finally lost it.” The good news is Tetris is relevant to this tutorial. So we aren’t crazy. Yet.

You see, Swiftris, if you haven’t figured it out by now, is a combination of Swift and Tetris. It’sa free tutorial that walks you through the steps of building a 2D puzzle game for iOS, using Swift and Spritekit (Apple’s 2D dev software).

All you have to do to start building your own version of Tetris is enter your email! That way they can sell it to all their partner companies send you other relevant development information (most likely).

Swifts is from Bloc, which has a wealth of free-to-use tutorials for simpler game development. They teach about user interface and user experience, too, which will certainly come into play down the line as you start making stuff for, you know, people that aren’t you.

3. Hacking With Swift

This site has some free-to-use material, but it tempts you with offers of much, much more if you just fork over a little hard-earned cash. One element that’s free isthe Swift Knowledge Base which, according to the creator of the site, has “answers to almost 300 of the most commonly asked questions” from people using Swift and Sprite.

For no money, you get 40 projects from Hacking With Swift, plus their Introduction to Swift content. Everything is up to date (as in tutorials for swift 3 and iOS 10).

They also run a subreddit, so if you have a specific question you can fire it off in there and cross your fingers for an answer (just kidding, they seem pretty responsive and should get back to you before too long).

Hacking With Swift also has videos of “Xcode tips and tricks.” Those are not free. You must pay to view that content. You also miss out on their guidebook which not only has revision notes, but more exercises to practice with as well.

The way we see it, you have two options: If you’re new to Swift, you should start with their introduction. If you know some Swift and you really want to make a flappy bird knock off, you can jump right to Project 36: Crashy Planes. The choice is yours. Go get ‘em, Goose!

4. AppCoda

AppCodahas a ton of free iOS tutorials, though they aren’t specifically for game development. They teach everything from creating gradient colors to developing a barcode reader.

It’s definitely worth browsing their tutorial catalog to determine for yourself if anything looks interesting and/or applicable to you. Just because they aren’t game-related does not mean you won’t find a clever use for them as you head out on your iOS game design adventure.

The most helpful resource from AppCoda might be their beginner’s guide for Swift 3, Xcode 8, and iOS 10. Again, the guide is based around app building in general, not the game niche. If you want to start broadly with your iOS software developing skills, AppCoda could be your spot. You get 150 sample pages of the beginner’s guide for free.

If you want the full 600-page version, you can drop the $39 for it. They have other “package deals” with extra features (at a higher cost), like the starter kit, which gives you access to the intermediate programming tutorial too.

5. The Make School

The Make Schooloffers tutorials that help you make your own versions of games that already exist (like the hit game 2048 or Timberman). Some of the tutorials deal with Swift, and others actually deal with C++ or Cocos Studio.

They also offer an online academy. This lets you enroll in online “courses” and allows you to track your progress as you move step by step through the program. It appears to be completely free for both the tutorials and the online academy courses.

Video Game Design Tutorials:

In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how you can best learn iOS app development. We’re going to look at how you can learn to code iOS apps, instead of focusing on how to build an app.

Just as with learning anything new, learning iOS development is challenging. It’s also fun, exciting and rewarding! Can you take an approach that takes the frustration out of learning how to build iOS apps, while getting you faster to the finish line? Yes!

Here’s what we’ll get into:

  • What iOS development topics you need to learn and skills to master
  • The general focus areas of learning iOS development, such as Xcode
  • Common pitfalls for beginner iOS developers
  • Why it’s worth it to get through “the dip”
  • How to keep momentum by coding 1 hour every day
  • A step-by-step plan for starting your own app project

When you’ve finished reading this tutorial, you will have a step-by-step plan for learning how to code. You know exactly what to do, what steps to take, and how to take them. Oh, and you don’t need any coding experience to get started.

Ready? Let’s go.

Getting Started With iOS Development

Let’s first talk about what skills you need to build your own apps.

  • Master Xcode: Xcode is the Mac app you use to create apps. It has a code editor, project organizer, compiler, debugger, and many more important tools to build great apps.
  • Swift Programming: Swift is the powerful programming language that you use to code iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS apps. It’s easier to learn than Objective-C, and Swift packs a ton of features that help you code productively. It’s also a lot of fun!
  • Build UIs: Every app needs a User Interface (UI). UIs are made up of buttons, views, navigation, labels, images, controls, etcetera. It’s important that you know how to build UIs and design them. You can use view controllers or SwiftUI.
  • Coding Logic: Your Swift code governs what happens in your app, and when. If this then that. This is called logic, and it’s crucial to any app. Most of learning iOS app development is focused on understanding code and logic, and being able to code from scratch.
  • App Architecture: Writing clear, extensible and maintainable code is as important as writing code that works. App architecture is like the foundation you build a house on. It’s a challenging topic, and it takes time to learn what solution works best in different scenarios.

Can anyone learn how to code? Absolutely! You only need some time, and a little bit of perseverance to get started. It helps to pick an iOS app project you want to build, because that’ll motivate you to learn more.

Xcode, the Mac app you use to create iOS apps, only runs on macOS. And to use macOS, you need a Mac computer. Xcode doesn’t run on iPad, unfortunately. If you want to learn iOS development, you will need a Mac! There are other options too, as I’ve explained in this tutorial.

Learn how to build iOS apps

Get started with iOS 14 and Swift 5

/how-to-get-to-automator-app-in-mac.html. Sign up for my iOS development course, and learn how to build great iOS 14 apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 12.

Practice One Hour Per Day

One hour a day…

This is my no. 1 rule for learning anything. If you can set aside one hour a day to focus exclusively on learning iOS app development, you’re guaranteed to make progress. It’s that simple.

Here’s how it works:

  • Learn iOS app development for one hour a day, every day, for one year
  • Focus exclusively on iOS development in this hour, without distractions
  • Set a timer for an hour, and stop when the timer goes off
  • Get back to learning iOS app development for one hour the next day
  • When you miss a day, don’t worry, and pick it up again the next day

Research shows that our brains learn new information when we repeatedly expose ourselves to the learning material, in different ways. You could say that practice makes permanent, so by consistently spending time to learn iOS development you will master it.

In the years that I’ve run LearnAppMaking.com, I’ve seen many people learn to code iOS apps. A pattern that stood out among successful learners is that they learned habitually, and kept their momentum between learning sessions. So, when you learn consistently, and get back to it regularly, you’ll learn app development more successfully.

Learning is of course a complex topic. If you’re interested to learn more about how we learn, I recommend you check out Barbara Oakley’s excellent Coursera course, Learning How To Learn.

Do excuses bog you down, when you want to learn iOS development? Commit to 1 hour of learning a day. Keep a run streak count on your calendar to keep yourself accountable. Mark every day you learned for 1 hour with a big red X, and don’t break your day-to-day streak. No zero days!

Recommended iOS App Development Topics

Let’s take a look at the topics you’ll need to learn to master iOS app development. And get my open source Swift cheatsheet while you’re at it!

Begin with these Swift topics:

Then move on to topics about the iOS SDK:

  • Working with view controllers and SwiftUI
  • Working with UI elements such as UILabel , UIButton and UIImage
  • Working with table views and tab bars
  • Working with navigation and UINavigationController
  • Sending and receiving notifications with NotificationCenter
  • Learn how to find and fix bugs effectively and efficiently (with zero frustrations!)
  • Get to know Xcode, Interface Builder and iPhone Simulator

Looking for a great app project to build? Try these:

Then learn about app architecture:

  • Get started with Model-View-Controller
  • Learn why app architecture matters
  • How to pass data between view controllers
  • Learn about SOLID, DRY and the Single Responsibility Principle
  • Focus on testable code and Dependency Injection

And focus on some intermediate topics:

Finally, get some diversity into your learning with:

  • Learn about algorithms
  • How do you keep up with Swift changes?
  • Learn to find what you need in Apple’s documentation
  • How to transition from tutorials to writing code from scratch

Looking for comprehensive, in-depth iOS app development training? Check out my flagship iOS development course, here at LearnAppMaking. The above topics, and many more, are introduced gradually as you build 6 different iOS apps in the course. And you get 1-on-1 help in our developer community! » Learn more

Get Through “The Dip”

I’ve learned plenty of new things in my life. Every time I learned a new skill, I would encounter something known as “the dip”. The concept of this “dip” was originally introduced to me by Seth Godin.

You want to get through the dip as soon as possible, because everything gets easier after the dip. The idea of the dip is quitting before you start something, and powering through the dip no matter what, if you decided to pursue your goal.

Here’s how you recognize the dip when learning iOS development:

  • You can write more code, with fewer errors, without running your app in between, to check your results
  • When you encounter bugs or errors, you have an intuitive workflow that you follow automatically
  • You get better at reading someone else’s code, and understand what they’re doing
  • You understand what tools and components you need to build an app feature, and you can create a break-down of steps you need to take to build it

When you feel a certain fluency when you’re coding apps, you know you’re through the dip. It’s a great feeling of ease, clarity and comfort. And it’s awesome!

Beginner iOS developers make two common mistakes when dealing with the dip:

  • They don’t give up before the dip, and lose valuable time
  • They slack off, and stay in the dip forever

When you set your expectations of learning iOS app development too high, you’re likely to give up when the going gets tough. You get frustrated, lose motivation and give up. If you reflect on this before starting, you might be compelled to give it a try and decide that it’s not for you.

When there’s too much time between learning sessions, you don’t build up momentum. Your brain doesn’t get enough exposure to the materials you’re trying to learn. So, you forget what you learn and you won’t get over the hump.

It’s surprisingly simple to overcome these mistakes. Here’s how:

  • Give up before you start, and if you start, don’t give up
  • Commit, build momentum, and keep the pressure on

If you give up before you start, you will never have to get through the dip. It sounds defeatist, and that’s the point: quitting before you start is exceptionally effective! You can try lots of things, decide that it’s not for you, and move on. You increase your chances of succeeding at a greater number of goals, having tried many of them. And think about the time you’ve saved!

If you commit to learning app development, then follow through. Don’t give up! Commit yourself, build momentum, and keep the pressure on. Power through the dip, and everything gets easier after.

The essence of the dip is your ability to assess future failures, and choosing what to commit to. You save time, money and energy because you didn’t waste it on something you were going to give up anyway. Instead, you spend these resources on something you’re 100% committed to. And that’s what you’ll succeed at.

This is an excellent video that explains how The Dip works, in more detail.

How To Start Your Own App Project

The best way to learn iOS app development is to start your own app project. You can try out newly learned things in your own app, and gradually build towards a complete app.

The single biggest struggle for beginner app developers is transitioning from doing tutorials to coding your own iOS apps from scratch. Everything makes sense when you’re following a tutorial, but you’re stumped when starting a project from scratch.

Sounds familiar?

When you start your own project as early as possible in the learning process, you get used to coding from scratch. And that’s exactly what you want to practice. Don’t stay stuck with iOS tutorials!

Here’s the approach I recommend:

  1. Learning Phase: Start with tutorials, and let them teach you individual topics and skills
  2. Practice Phase: Apply what you learn in tutorials in mini “sketch” projects to practice
  3. Experience Phase: Focus on incorporating newly learned topics and skills in your big project

Mac App Development Tutorial Download

Divide your time equally between the three phases. You can move between the phases however you see fit, but you’ll see that it’s easiest to go from Learning to Practice to Experience.

The last step is called the Experience Phase because real-world experience is important. If you stay in the learning and practicing phases, you never incorporate what you learn in real-world projects.

It’s exactly this real-world experience that matters to employers, freelance clients, indie apps and startups. Building iOS apps is different in the real world, compared to the classroom. You might learn “fake” swimming on land first, but you don’t want to stay there forever. Jump in!

The Practice Phase is crucial, too. I see iOS developers learn something new and then immediately apply it in a real-world project. This leads to errors and frustrations, because your new skill hasn’t developed enough to be ready for an actual project. Practice it from different perspectives first and avoid copying-and-pasting code.

How do you start your app project?

  1. Start with a simple, basic app idea
  2. Design and map out your app’s features
  3. Work out your app’s data structure
  4. Investigate frameworks and libraries
  5. Set up your app project and build the 1st feature
  6. Build the next feature when you’re ready
  7. Backtrack, keep going, and don’t stop

I’ve written extensively about creating your app project from start to finish, so here are a few quick tips:

  • Don’t try to build the next Facebook, and don’t make your app idea too complex
  • Keep a notebook of best practices, summaries and tips and tricks
  • Gradually upgrade your goals when you feel you can handle more challenging projects
  • Learn to approach a problem from several angles, and learn different solutions for one problem – this one skill has kept me in business for 10+ years
  • When you use a framework or library, find out how it works internally
  • Go back to code you’ve written before, and features you’ve build, and improve them with what you know now

Building your own app project is incredibly fun and rewarding. It’s not just the end result that counts – the gradual progress of improving, learning and refining is what makes it worth it. And you’ll cultivate a valuable, employable skill in the process: iOS development!

Apple Mac Tutorials Free

Learn how to build iOS apps

Development
Get started with iOS 14 and Swift 5

Sign up for my iOS development course, and learn how to build great iOS 14 apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 12.

Further Reading

Are you ready to take on your app project, and learn iOS app development? So far, we’ve looked at:

  • What topics you need to learn and skills you need to master
  • The general focus areas of learning iOS app development
  • Two common pitfalls for beginner iOS development
  • Why it’s worth it to get through “the dip”
  • How to keep momentum with coding 1 hour every day
  • A step-by-step plan for starting your own app project

Mac Os Application Development Tutorial

Want to learn more?

Mac Os App Development Tutorial

  • Check out my free iOS basics course, which guides you through the basics of iOS development in 7 days
  • Sign up for my flagship iOS development course to master iOS development and much, much more