iOS Mobile App Development

The process of making an application for apple hardware is known as ios development this is the basic definition of ios development now let's take a deep dive into it.

First, we have to get familiar with the tools, so we will require the following things:

• a computer,
• a programming language
• an integrated development environment (IDE)

Unlike other branches of development which have a wider range of tools to choose from, iOS development is pretty specific as it requires a Macintosh (or at least a Hackintosh). Now we will discuss the programming language and framework for ios

Swift

Swift is an object-oriented language. It’s developed by Apple and it’s diverse enough for beginners who are looking for their first programming language, as well as for experienced developers who want to build complex applications.

It’s relatively new — dating from 2014, its main goal is to serve as a much easier alternative to C-based languages like C, C++, and Objective-C.

It has loads of other great benefits, including:

• It’s faster than Objective-C
• Easy learning curve
• Easy to read
• Has better memory management

Safer than C languages

More and more apps are made with Swift because of its elegance and practicality. Sometimes you’ll have to work with Objective-C also.

Objective-C

Before Swift, code for Apple products was written in Objective-C.

Like Swift, this language is also object-oriented but was ultimately replaced by Swift as the main programming language.

IDE

Xcode is Apple’s official IDE .

Xcode is used for developing iOS, iPad, watchOS, macOS, and tvOS apps, basically anything Apple.

You can write Swift in XCode but also in other IDE-s. However, as a beginner, it’s best to start with Swift

There are a few IDEs. Here I’ll mention just some of them, so you can explore them later:

• Code Runner 2
• Atom
• App code
• Visual Studio

The good news is that Swift is automatically installed with Xcode. It’s free and available on the App Store.

Now that you’ve set up your tools, we can get started with building your first app.

We’ll start from the top with some iOS basics to get your app running!

The basics of iOS

If you’re an iOS beginner, let’s establish a starter kit, just so you can build something simple.

Here’s what you’ll need.

First things first, you need to be able to build user interfaces.

According to apple's official documentation, a user interface is a point at which human users interact with a computer, website, or application.

Or to put it simply, it’s everything the user sees in an app.

UI is the basic requirement of every app, not only an iOS one.

Before we move on to additional steps like networking, creating a complex UI, or perhaps concurrency, I’ll introduce you to a tool you’ll definitely use when coding — third-party libraries

Third-party libraries

They are a great tool, especially if you are starting out or want to do something a bit more complex. They make coding much easier.

To integrate third-party libraries into your project you will need a dependency manager.

When choosing a library for your app, always make sure they’re regularly updated and maintained so your app can function properly.

Now let’s move on to UI, the visual part of app building.

UI (UIKit — programmatic, storyboards, SwiftUI)

In case you are a visual thinker like me, it’s a good idea to start with something tangible, like a user interface. As I said before, UI is “what you see” when you open an app.

To make user interfaces you’ll need a UIKit.

UIKit

This is a framework that helps you construct and manage a graphical, event-driven user interface for an iOS or tvOS app.

Also, it provides the objects for building your app. With these objects, you can display your content on screen, interact with it, and manage interactions with the system.

Storyboards

As a beginner, you’ll probably like storyboards. Storyboards are visual editors where you can put together a screen from already existing components, such as UIButton, UIimageView or UITableView and instantly see what your app will look like.

Another great feature is that you can create transitions between view controllers, as seen in the image below.

Programmatic or .xib

However, in case you already have some development experience, you might prefer building UI programmatically or even building some views in .xib so that you can reuse them throughout your app.

This approach has better reusability as well as easier debugging.

But you can only use one XIB file per view. That’s why storyboards are more popular these days.

SwiftUI

If all of this is not enough and you want to start with something even more intuitive, I have one more option for you, SwiftUI. I have saved this one for last, as it is the newest and still not as reliable and robust as UIKit.

SwiftUI was first released in 2019 and can be used only if the minimum operating system level is iOS 13, however, it is not recommended to go below iOS 14 since at the time iOS 13 came out, SwiftUI was still in the early stages of development.

So in last, I could only say that with the help of swift and UiKit we can make wonderful applications.