Debug at the iPhone DevCenter

Signing up with the iPhone DevCenter is the quickest and easiest step of your journey. Download the SDK. Use XCode to develop you app, the iPhone simulator to try it out, tnstruments for profiling, and my favorite pixie to make it pixel perfect. Interface Builder is a GUI builder—drag-and-drop layout along with drag-and-drop wiring. (I recommend you avoid Interface Builder and its .xib files: one wrong wire and your app may crash with very little evidence pointing to the cause. It’s just plain hard to tell what’s going on when the properties of your application are hidden away in a mess of menus.) Now that you have the tools. Where do you get the skills?

The DevCenter has a series of getting started documents: iPhone OS, Objective-C Primer, Creating an iPhone Application. These overviews will point you to meatier documentation: Objective-C Programming and iPhone development. Last, but far from least, there’s invaluable sample code. You’ll want as much sample code as you can get.

Once you’re in the thick of iPhone development, access API documentation from within XCode via Help > Documentation (command+option+?). Though serviceable, I’ve been much happier with Java and Flex reference. I especially like how Flex documentation often puts sample code right in API. Java refers you to the Java Tutorials. Similarly, the iPhone docs have a topics section (file url, install the SDK first, link is specific to version 2.1). Though not nearly as comprehensive, it’s a good start. To Apple’s credit, I’ve found APIs feel cleaner and easier to use than similar Java Swing and Flex correlates. But watch out: bugs abound. If the behavior looks fishy, be sure to Google whether it really is fishy.

Next time we’ll get into the real iPhone bureaucracy: how do you test your app on a physical device?