If you’re getting started with iOS development, or want a firmer grasp of the basics, this practical guide provides a clear view of its fundamental building blocks—Objective-C, Xcode, and Cocoa Touch. You’ll learn object-oriented concepts, understand how to use Apple’s development tools, and discover how Cocoa provides the underlying functionality iOS apps need to have. Dozens of example projects are available at GitHub.

Once you master the fundamentals, you’ll be ready to tackle the details of iOS app development with author Matt Neuburg’s companion guide, Programming iOS 7—coming in December 2013.

Explore the C language to learn how Objective-C works

Learn how instances are created, and why they’re so important

Tour the lifecycle of an Xcode project, from inception to App Store

Discover how to build interfaces with nibs and the nib editor

Explore Cocoa’s use of Objective-C linguistic features

Use Cocoa’s event-driven model and major design patterns

Learn the role of accessors, key-value coding, and properties

Understand the power of ARC-based object memory management

Send messages and data between Cocoa objects