Starting out in IOS dev

[Flavlus]

Im looking to start venturing into IOS dev. I see that Objective C is getting phased out by swift. Do you guys recommend using Swift and if so what is your preferred IDE and where would be a good starting point ? 
 

PS: my experience is mainly with JAVA and C# 

[madknight3]

I believe XCode is the primary IDE for developing iOS apps. In terms of languages, it would probably be beneficial to learn both Swift and Objective C.

 

On a side note, looking into iOS development with C# and Xamarin may also interest you. I wouldn't ignore native development, but it's something you may like to consider as well.

[Flavlus]

32 minutes ago, madknight3 said:

I believe XCode is the primary IDE for developing iOS apps. In terms of languages, it would probably be beneficial to learn both Swift and Objective C.

 

On a side note, looking into iOS development with C# and Xamarin may also interest you. I wouldn't ignore native development, but it's something you may like to consider as well.

Thanks for the info, Im using VS for web dev at work. And waiting on the VS / Xamarin merge to complete before looking at it from that perspective I think.
 

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 hour ago, Flavlus said:

Im looking to start venturing into IOS dev. I see that Objective C is getting phased out by swift. Do you guys recommend using Swift and if so what is your preferred IDE and where would be a good starting point ?

Apple is really pushing Swift and it seems like iOS devs are liking it. So it'd be prudent to learn Swift rather than learn Objective-C, unless you are going to poke at older iOS apps.

 

Also note, you need macOS to do iOS development. At least, that's the official requirement. However you get macOS to run, that's none of my concern.

[Flavlus]

26 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Apple is really pushing Swift and it seems like iOS devs are liking it. So it'd be prudent to learn Swift rather than learn Objective-C, unless you are going to poke at older iOS apps.

 

Also note, you need macOS to do iOS development. At least, that's the official requirement. However you get macOS to run, that's none of my concern.

im deving on a mac with parallels .. wont be an issue

 

[Flavlus]

And no this is not my main Computer, Its just my MBP i use for work 

 

 

 

[jslowik]

I'd recommend Swift. As far as IDE you're kind of stuck with Xcode, but I've also really enjoyed using AppCode (Jetbrains) along side it for the actual code. Then just do the storyboard stuff in Xcode.

 

It's kind of clunky using two IDEs simultaneously but I do it so rarely that I find it more comfortable to have the familiar IntelliJ style editor.

 

YMMV of course.

[Vitae]

Similarly coming from a Java background I personally found Swift quite an easy language to pick up and was a great entrance into native iOS development. Despite how much Apple are pushing Swift, there is still a lot of Objective-C around though so I definitely wouldn't try and shy away from learning it even if it isn't your primary language.

 

In terms of IDE's your options are really either AppCode or Xcode. Despite being the obvious choice, actually being made by Apple, Xcode is honestly not that good especially for Swift (which again, is their language). Basic refactoring is still not supported and many activities are a bit of a chore and probably cause the IDE to crash. Saying that if you want to use the interface builder then you've pretty much got to use it for some stuff. Whilst swapping between them can be quite laborious, the benefits (such as better debugging, refactoring support, and a better overall experience) mean I'd rather use it for primary development. It's also worth noting that AppCode is not free (which Xcode is).

 

In terms of a starting point I would probably recommend using (contradicting my previous statement) Xcode's "Playgrounds" feature and just get a feel for the classes and APIs available to you without the daunt of an entire project. Keep it small with a single view, add some text and buttons and see what you can come up with. I also find (whilst milage may vary) that exploring open-source projects and trying to contribute is a great way to see some good (and bad) practices!