Computers, smartphones, and tablets may look nice, but they're essentially useless without software to make them work. Today, the Mac is one of the hottest computers around, the iPhone is one of the most popular smartphones, and the iPad is one of the most dominant tablets in the market. With so many people buying these products, there's a tremendous opportunity to write and sell software or applications for all these millions of users. In our first lesson, you'll learn the basics of how programming works for any computer. Then you'll find out how to use a programming tool called Xcode to create programs or applications for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Just like a lot of trained professionals—from surgeons to car mechanics—computer programmers need certain special tools to help them write programs. In this lesson, we'll go over the types of tools you'll need to create programs. Then you'll learn how to use Xcode, the free programming tool that Apple provides for writing Mac, iPhone, and iPad programs and applications. By the end of this lesson, you'll feel a lot more comfortable using Xcode because you'll know what it can do, how it works, and how to use it to write your own programs.

Programming boils down to writing commands in a particular language. To create Mac, iPhone, and iPad programs, you'll use a programming language called Objective-C. The bigger your program, the more complicated it can get—so today you'll learn how to divide a large program into smaller, more manageable parts.

What's the main feature of any program? The commands that tell the program what to do and how to do it! To create Objective-C commands, you need to learn how to read, write, and understand Objective-C code . . . and that's what we'll talk about today.

Every program needs to hold data temporarily, and today you'll see how this works. First, you'll discover how programs can hold data in a storage unit called a variable or a constant. After that, you'll find out how Objective-C manipulates data to make decisions.

One of the most useful features of modern programming languages like Objective-C is the ability to create objects. The main idea behind objects is to divide a large program into independent parts that you can paste together like building blocks. By learning the advantages of objects and how to use them in Objective-C, you can create programs faster and more reliably than ever before.

To design a user interface, you need to understand not only what different elements you can use but also when to use them and how to incorporate them into your own program. In this lesson, you'll continue learning about designing a user interface. You'll also get acquainted with using Apple's documentation to find out more about some of the most popular user interface elements.

Congratulations—you're ready to create a basic iPhone program! By applying what you've learned throughout this course, you can get a rough idea of how to develop your own programs for the Mac, the iPhone, or the iPad.