Chapter 1. Setup and First Run

I know you want to start writing apps as soon as possible, but there are three things you need to know first:

I don’t assume you already know how to program.

You don’t need to have existing experience with Objective-C, Cocoa, Xcode, or even C. If you have some familiarity with a computer language (even HTML), it will help you. You do need to be a reasonably proficient Mac user. If you show up with the desire to learn Mac programming, I’ll walk you through what you need to know.

The chapters are modular.

If you know C and object-oriented concepts, but not Objective-C specifically, you can skip to Chapter 5 after learning about Xcode in this chapter. If you’ve already dabbled in Mac or iPhone programming, and know your way around Objective-C and some basic Cocoa topics, you can probably jump to Chapter 7. Otherwise, start right here.

You need a Mac running Snow Leopard.

All of the chapters assume that you’re running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which runs only on Intel-based Macs.