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Welcome to iOS 26 Programming for Beginners. I hope this book serves as a useful introduction to creating and publishing iOS 26 apps on the App Store.In this chapter, you’ll download and install Xcode on your Mac. Then, you’ll explore the Xcode user interface. After that, you’ll create your first iOS app and run it in Simulator. Finally, you’ll run your app on an iOS device.By the end of this chapter, you will know how to create an iOS app, how to run it in Simulator, and how to run it on an iOS device.The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Downloading and installing Xcode from the App Store
• Exploring the Xcode user interface
• Running your app in Simulator
• Running your app on an iOS device

Technical requirements

To do the exercises for this chapter, you will need the following:

• An Apple Mac computer running macOS 15 Sequoia or macOS Tahoe 26
• An Apple account (if you don’t have one, you will create one in this chapter)
• Optionally, an iOS device running iOS 26

The Xcode project for this chapter is in the Chapter01 folder of the code bundle for this book, which can be downloaded here:https://github.com/PacktPublishing/-iOS-26-Programming-for-Beginners-10EYou’ll start by downloading Xcode, Apple’s integrated development environment (IDE) for developing iOS apps from the App Store, in the next section.

The total size of the download is very large (13 GB at the time of writing), so it may take a while to download. Ensure that you have enough disk space prior to downloading.

Downloading and installing Xcode from the App Store

Xcode is Apple’s IDE for developing macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS apps. You’ll need to download and install Xcode on your Mac prior to writing your first app. Follow these steps:

1. On your Mac, choose App Store from the Apple menu.
2. In the search field in the top-right corner, type xcode and press the Return key.
3. You’ll see Xcode in the search results. Click Get and then click Install.

4. If you have an Apple account, type it in the text field and enter your password when prompted. If you don’t have one, click Create Apple Account and follow the step-by-step instructions to create one:

   

   You can see more information on how to create an Apple account using this link: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108647#appstore.

5. Once Xcode has been installed, launch it. You’ll see a license agreement screen. Click Agree:

   

Exploring the Xcode user interface

You’ve just created your first Xcode project! As you can see, the Xcode user interface is divided into several distinct parts, as shown here:

Let’s look at each part in more detail. The following descriptions correspond to the numbers shown in the preceding screenshot:

• Toolbar (1): Used to build and run your apps and view the progress of running tasks.
• Navigator area (2): Provides quick access to the various parts of your project. The Project navigator is displayed by default.
• Editor area (3): Allows you to edit source code, user interfaces, and other resources.
• Inspector area (4): Allows you to view and edit information about items selected in the Navigator or Editor areas.
• Debug area (5): Contains the debug bar, the variables view, and the console. The Debug area is toggled by pressing Shift + Command + Y.

Next, let’s examine the toolbar more closely. The left side of the toolbar is shown here...

Running your app in Simulator

Simulator is downloaded and installed after you install Xcode. It provides a simulated iOS device so that you can see what your app looks like and how it behaves, without needing a physical iOS device. It can model all screen sizes and resolutions for both iPad and iPhone, so you can test your app on multiple devices easily.To run your app in Simulator, follow these steps:

1. Click the Destination pop-up menu to view a list of simulated devices. Choose iPhone 16e from this menu:

   

   In your own projects, you can choose any simulator you like. That said, if you want to match the screenshots in this book exactly, use the iPhone 16e simulator.

2. Click the Run button to install and run your app on the currently selected simulator. You can also use the Command + R keyboard shortcut.

3. Simulator will launch and show a representation of an iPhone 16e running your app. Your app will display a white screen...

Running your app on an iOS device

Although you’ll be able to go through most of the exercises in this book using Simulator, it is recommended to build and test your apps on an actual iOS device, as Simulator will not be able to simulate some hardware components and software APIs.

For a comprehensive look at all the differences between Simulator and an actual device, see this link: https://help.apple.com/simulator/mac/current/#/devb0244142d.

In addition to your device, you’ll need an Apple account (used to automatically create a free Apple developer account) or a paid Apple developer account to build and run your app on your device. You can use the same Apple account that you used to download Xcode from the App Store. To run your app on an iOS device, follow these steps:

1. Use the cable that came with your iOS device to connect your device to your Mac, and make sure the iOS device is unlocked.
2. Your Mac will display an Allow Accessory to Connect alert. Click Allow.
3. Your iOS...

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to download and install Xcode on your Mac. Then, you familiarized yourself with the different parts of the Xcode user interface. After that, you created your first iOS app, selected a simulated iOS device, and built and ran the app in Simulator. Finally, you learned how to connect an iOS device to Xcode via USB so that you can run your app on it.In the next chapter, we’ll start exploring the Swift language using Swift Playgrounds and learn how simple values and types are implemented in Swift.