Chapter 1. Your first iOS application
This chapter covers
- Exploring the iOS SDK
- Creating a project in Xcode
- Exploring the Xcode interface
- Using Interface Builder and storyboards
- Running your app
In this chapter, you’ll take your first look at Xcode, Apple’s software for building iOS apps. You’ll also build a basic first app, launch it on the iOS simulator, and then take a sneak peek at an app you’ll build throughout this book.
An app wouldn’t be much use without access to the device. Storing files, playing sounds, displaying information on the screen, receiving touch events from the user—it’s all achieved via the iOS SDK. Your app never directly accesses the hardware; instead, the iOS SDK provides abstraction layers for apps to access the underlying hardware.
Figure 1.1 shows the abstraction layers of the iOS SDK, from the higher-level services and features to the lowest-level interfaces. Table 1.1 has more details about what’s contained in each layer.
