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Apple Development

intermediate

Build an app for the phone in your pocket using Swift and SwiftUI.

roughly a term, honestly

Before you start

  • Access to a Mac. We have a few in the lab, so not owning one is fine.
  • Some programming experience — Python counts
New here? Start with the setup steps

When you finish, you can

  • Build a multi-screen app that runs on a real iPhone
  • Use SwiftUI to describe a screen and watch it update as you type
  • Store data so it survives closing the app
  • Explain why your app looks the way it does, in design terms

SwiftUI lets you describe what a screen should look like and watch it appear next to your code as you type. It is one of the most satisfying ways to learn programming, because the thing you are building is right there.

What you will actually do

  1. Open Xcode without panicking. It is an enormous piece of software. You need about four parts of it, and we will point at those four.
  2. Build one screen. Text, an image, a button that does something.
  3. Add a second screen. Navigation is where an app starts feeling like an app rather than a demo.
  4. Keep some data. Make the app remember something after you close it.
  5. Run it on a real phone. This is the moment that gets people hooked, and it is worth doing even if the app is tiny.

Be realistic about the pace

This is the longest track we run. Swift is stricter than Python and Xcode is a lot of software to meet at once. Nobody finishes this in a month, and that is not a reflection on you.

If you have never programmed before, do Python first. You will get further, faster, and enjoy it more.

When you are done

Pitch an app the school would actually use. The Campus Map idea is sitting unclaimed and would work well as a phone app.

cat example.swift

apple-example
struct ContentView: View {
    var body: some View {
        Text("while { Dev Club }")
            .font(.system(.title, design: .monospaced))
    }
}