What programming language do I need to learn to make iPhone apps?

[sakau2007]

I'm an engineering student just scratching the surface of programming. In the next few months I will want to start developing an iPhone app. What language is the programming done in? And do I have to have a Mac computer to do it?

Any other super basic information I should know before getting started not covered in the sticky here?

[moonman239]

Objective-C and Cocoa-Java. App development uses a combination of those. You should also learn how to use the GUI tools in Xcode.

The iOS Developer Center has resources you can tap into to help you develop an iPhone app.

If you really want to, you can start by learning C and Java, but I prefer to dive right in.

[firewood]

The native language supported by most of the iOS frameworks is Objective C. But Objective C is a superset of ANSI C, and there are tons of engineering related APIs (Accelerate, et.al.) and data types in iOS that involve plain C, so you should learn both.

Python is also useful for scripting Xcode build and debug features.

You can also do a lot with web apps and web views for iOS, so knowing HTML5/Javascript is also extremely helpful.

If you want to be able to figure out the gnarliest compiler bugs, then knowing ARM assembly language would the key.

You will need a Mac that can run Lion (OS X 10.7).

[LagFighter]

Objective-C and Cocoa-Java. App development uses a combination of those. You should also learn how to use the GUI tools in Xcode.

The iOS Developer Center has resources you can tap into to help you develop an iPhone app.

If you really want to, you can start by learning C and Java, but I prefer to dive right in.

This is misleading. There isn't any Java in the iOS SDK by default - it's more or less all Objective-C API's with a few level C API's buried in Cocoa.

I would not necessarily start with Java if your end goal is iOS development.

[saqibjaan]

You need to learn Objective C language. Then move on to different frameworks in iPhone SDK according to your needs.

If you have any previous experience of C/C++ language, then learning Objective-C would be a cakewalk for you.

As far as your development environment is concerned, Mac machine is preferred. But you can develop iPhone apps on non-Mac machines using VMWare workstation OR VMWare Player.

[Nick johnson]

Objective C............
If u are comfortable using C/C++, then you will not face any serious problems in Objective C....

[amorya]

This is misleading. There isn't any Java in the iOS SDK by default - it's more or less all Objective-C API's with a few level C API's buried in Cocoa.

Agreed. moonman239's advice is many years out of date. There used to be a Java SDK for Cocoa, but it was a long time ago and well before the iPhone.