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iOS

Posted by Philip Kuona
Philip Kuona
3,388 Points

Is it possible to do the iOS track on the iPad and at what stage will i need a Mac?

I do not have a Mac yet but i would like to know if i can do my track on the iPad for now till i get a Mac.

1 Answer

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

Unfortunately, to make iOS or OS X applications you need the Xcode IDE and it is only available on the Mac. I mean there's nothing keeping you from watching the courses I guess, but even the very first Swift Basics Course involves coding in Xcode — I'm not sure how useful passive watching would be when trying to learn a new language.

You might want to try this Mobile App Design for iOS Course though. It looks like you'll eventually need a Mac for the Sketch App related parts but it should give you something useful to do, until you get that Mac.

Philip Kuona
Philip Kuona
3,388 Points

Thanks Mikis for your quick response. So i am new to this, does this mean within the Treehouse app i still wont be able to to the track without the Mac? I under

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

No problem Philip, happy to help.

So, on the iPad, you'll definitely be able to watch all the courses in any track without any (significant) problems. The thing is you will eventually need a Mac, with the application called Xcode installed, in order to be able to implement what you learn — i.e., follow along with the instructor or build an app of your own. For this reason, learning Swift (or Objective-C, if you so choose) will become that much more difficult.

On the other hand, there's nothing holding you back from watching the entire track twice: once, until your Mac arrives, and once again, after.

But, perhaps to more definitively answer your question—no— you cannot build iOS or OSX applications from an iPad, or any iPad app.