iOS What do I need to get started writing iOS apps?

[AxoNeuron]

As far as courses for iOS development goes, there is some really good stuff on youtube, that's where I got started. I would suggest try a few tutorials for beginners on youtube first, don't spend any money until you are sure this is what you want to do. That very first time I used a for-loop and figured how to say "Hello World" a million times (literally), I was hooked

If you decide it's definitely something you want to pursue, then I would suggest a course from bitfountain.io. I took their iOS 7 course and it was an absolute godsend to me. Now, two years later, I'm setting up Node servers with global CDN networks to serve my iOS apps, handling encryption, etc. and I got started like everyone else just writing a 'hello world' app. The coolest thing about programming is that your skills are (usually) transferable between languages. The syntax is different but the basic principles are the same. I used a lot of the principles from iOS programming in order to program an arduino to operate radios, a GPS module, and motors to create an autonomous quadcopter drone. Wrote the stabilization software, radio com system, and all. It's all the same principle.

I don't know if some of you just work on small projects or what. But if I just tried to open two of my recent commercial iOS projects on a macbook with 4GB of RAM and it literally took MORE than thirty seconds to open. And when I clicked on the storyboard file, the entire computer was completely unusable for the next minute or so. This was on a computer with an incredibly fast Samsung 850 Pro SSD, so no, it wasn't a slow HDD.

I have enough problems developing with 8GB. 4GB is almost completely unusable with any decent sized commercial iOS project.

You can write an entire iOS app on a machine with 8GB of RAM. It's possible. But is it a good idea? Hell no.

 

[developer13245]

Really? You should just develop for windows phone.

 

[developer13245]

oh, I forgot to mention that "Really?" is a Microsoft trademark...

 

[Melrose]

Do not get anything less than 16GB of RAM with an iOS development machine. I made this mistake with my retina macbook pro and regret it on a daily basis. It's the main reason I built a hackintosh which has 32GB RAM. Writing a 'hello world' app won't use many resources but with regular commercial development, you will certainly have many applications open, not just Xcode.

Spot on about higher specs needed. The Retinas need higher power anyway just to run normal stuff - they're incredible machines, but you just have to upgrade them a bit when you them. That screen is beautiful but it's a big hog on resources; so, if you're doing any work besides simple development, you'll need to basically max out the machine you get to get the best results. 8GB is more than enough for most people who can get by with an Air or a rMB - the latter of which is far, far from a work machine of any type - and 16 is the minimum for a Pro, just as a going concern. Some folks will buy a bottom-barrel MacBook Pro and then complain when it has some issues grocking video processing... like, d'oh.

If the OP is serious about hard-core work and compiling, price-per-performance [sic], the Mac Pro or higher performance iMac is still the best option. If he's absolutely, 1000% hung up on a laptop it will cost him to get one good enough to handle any task he can throw at it. At this point, it seems more like he's hung up on a laptop for laptop's sake than having a machine that's the best deal for the dollar. A Mackintosh may work but they can potentially be a real PIA to set up or upgrade.

If it were me, I'd take it as a business expense and buy one of each a mid-range Pro laptop or maxed out Air coupled with a sweet, sweet iMac... but my priorities for performance and workload are different.

 

[postpc]

is there any way to rent a VM in the cloud running OS X for IOS developement?

 

[AxoNeuron]

is there any way to rent a VM in the cloud running OS X for IOS developement?

I'd suggest just doing a hackintosh so you can run OS X natively. But as a very last resort if you really don't want to do a hackintosh there are online services that will let you use an OS X machine. But I wouldn't recommend it. It will not be an enjoyable experience.

 

[Boris-VTR]

Macbook air with 8 is totaly fine for ios development. But i would recommend 16 gigs of ram.

 

[eventailapp]

I guess it probably depends on what kind of applications you want to write. I designed (in Affinity Designer) and wrote (in XCode 7 and Swift) mine on an old 15" Macbook Pro from 2009 with a C2D processor and 4Gigs of ram (SSD is of course a must) with no external keyboard or screen.

Is it optimal? No, of course not, but it is most definitely doable. I have no trouble running all the applications I need for development. Granted, designing interfaces in XCode is a pain on such a small screen but one can manage.

I would not get the new Macbook because of the M processor but literally any other Apple computer is fine. Were I buying a new computer now I would opt for a boosted 15" rMBP and be set for another eight years.