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iOS

Nick Brooks
Nick Brooks
2,780 Points
Posted by Nick Brooks
Nick Brooks
2,780 Points

Interested in iOS development

Very interested in starting to develop my own apps on iOS. However, have a quick question.

I do not own a mac, is this vital to start programming? I only have a PC. Am I able to start developing for iOS without a mac?

5 Answers

lowell
PLUS
lowell
Courses Plus Student 1,149 Points
lowell
lowell
Courses Plus Student 1,149 Points

Nick - Development of iOS apps requires an Intel-based Macintosh computer with the iOS SDK installed. Coding requires an integrated development environment called Xcode from Apple: https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

kirkbyo
kirkbyo
15,791 Points
kirkbyo
kirkbyo
15,791 Points

To my knowledge, you need to a mac in order to develop for IOS because you need Xcode which is only available on the App Store and not on pc.

Nick Brooks
Nick Brooks
2,780 Points
Nick Brooks
Nick Brooks
2,780 Points

Ok thank you everybody - would any of you recommend a mac over a PC for development in general?

lowell
PLUS
lowell
Courses Plus Student 1,149 Points
lowell
lowell
Courses Plus Student 1,149 Points

With PC, you can develop in almost any programming languages (html, php, javascript, sql, python, ruby on rails, c#, visual basic, .net) except for iOS. With MAC, you can develop in almost any languages except for Microsoft technologies using Visual Studio (C# or Visual Basic with .NET). It all depends on what you are target is. If you are really serious about writing iOS apps, i'd say go with a Mac. If you want to write Windows apps using C#/Visual Basic with .NET, go with a PC.

Rutger Farry
Rutger Farry
2,071 Points
Rutger Farry
Rutger Farry
2,071 Points

lowell That's not totally true. You can install Windows on a Mac using Bootcamp. Then you can install Visual C++ and other tools to develop Microsoft technologies. (I have done this myself and it works perfectly).

Basic moral of the story is to buy a Mac.

lowell
lowell
Courses Plus Student 1,149 Points
lowell
lowell
Courses Plus Student 1,149 Points

Ofcourse - Virtualization (Parallels or VMware Fusion) or Bootcamp on Mac will let you run Windows. Bootcamp will run Windows in native mode. I have both Mac and PC, and I just use them side-by-side.