Book Image

Learning Xcode 8

By : Jak Tiano
Book Image

Learning Xcode 8

By: Jak Tiano

Overview of this book

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a breakthrough in mobile computing and the birth of world-changing mobile apps. With a reputation as one of the most user-centric and developer-friendly platforms, iOS is the best place to launch your next great app idea. As the official tool to create iOS applications, Xcode is chock full of features aimed at making a developer’s job easier, faster, and more fun. This book will take you from complete novice to a published app developer, and covers every step in between. You’ll learn the basics of iOS application development by taking a guided tour through the Xcode software and Swift programming language, before putting that knowledge to use by building your first app called “Snippets.” Over the course of the book, you will continue to explore the many facets of iOS development in Xcode by adding new features to your app, integrating gestures and sensors, and even creating an Apple Watch companion app. You’ll also learn how to use the debugging tools, write unit tests, and optimize and distribute your app. By the time you make it to the end of this book, you will have successfully built and published your first iOS application.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
Learning Xcode 8
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Understanding Swift basics


Like any new programming language, Swift has its quirks. But as with most languages, the building blocks are pretty simple and straightforward. In this section, we're going to start with the features of Swift that nearly every programming language has, so that you can get a feel for how it works. If you've never used any programming language before then there may be some terms you are unfamiliar with, but I suggest you read through and look those up as you read along.

Before you start, open up a fresh playground and code along as you read!

Data types, constants, and variables

If you break down how software works to the lowest level of granularity, all that really ever happens is that data on your computer is written, manipulated, and moved. When you go up a level of granularity and look at the source code for that software, you'll see a lot of data structures, classes, and functions, but all of these are just efficient and readable vessels for chunks of code that...