What is Xcode?
Xcode is an entire developer toolset for creating apps for iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch.
Xcode brings user interface design, coding, testing, debugging, and submitting to the App Store into a unified workflow.
Xcode Prerequisite
Minimun requirement for Xcode to run is macOS 12.0.x or later and 13 GB of hard drive space.
The latest version of Xcode is 13.4.1. (on time of this post) Now what version Xcode is running into our system, then just launch App Store and in the welcome screen, you’ll see the details.
The easiest way to download Xcode for free is through the App Store. If you download it from the App Store, then updating Xcode becomes really easy since you can just download and install the update through the store.
Xcode Alternatives
Being a programmer I highly recommend you should use Xcode if at all possible. The reason is that when Apple announces new changes, they build support for those new changes directly into Xcode.
Other third party IDE’s have to do more routine checks and it might not even be guaranteed that they’ll roll out support for the new changes from Apple.
If anyone still want to check out some alternatives to building iOS apps with Xcode, check out the following:
- Visual Studio Code
- Flutter
- React Native
- Xamarin
- PhoneGap
- Ionic
- .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI)
- AppCode
- Appcelerator
How to use Xcode?
Before we dive in, keep this Apple Documentation for Xcode handy.
In the media, as you can see there are main five ‘Area’: Toolbar, Editor, Utilities, Navigator and Debug.
You can also show/hide Navigator and Utilities area but clicking on this buttons.
This can be helpful, for example, when you’re writing code and you don’t need the Navigator area or the Utility area.
Run your App on iOS Simulator
Xcode 13.x comes with a wonderful iOS Simulator for you to test your application. Instead, you can use the iOS simulator for most of your development, then find a real physical device to test on when you’re nearly done.
You can actually do a lot with the Xcode simulator including
- Device Shake
- Device Rotation
- Simulating GPS co-ordinates
- Low Memory Scenarios
In this Xcode tutorial, you’ve learned about the various parts of the IDE and how to run your project in iOS simulator.
