I've been adding to my overall programming skills recently, learning how to develop Mac specific software. I love Web development and spend the better part of 60 hours a week building applications professionally and personally. However, I've always had a small interest in learning how to build desktop applications and a recent idea of mine has spurred some new development.

Not knowing exactly how to do what I want to do, I've been learning the nuances of Xcode/Cocoa/Objective-C development through reading various tutorials and documentation. The first app I've built - a currency converter - is extremely simple but represents the core concepts of Cocoa development including Xcode, Interface Builder and the Objective-C language.

Xcode is Apple's suite of tools that allows you to build on the OS X foundation and the power of UNIX with high-performance development technologies. Included in Xcode is Interface Builder, a design environment used to create the UI of your applications as well as the class-based, object-oriented portions needed to wire up the communication between model, view, and controller. Objective-C is the language of choice for describing your classes, objects, and the messages that bring the two together. Xcode also includes the GCC compiler allowing you build and link your applications and create native installers for various versions of OS X (including 64-bit versions).

While I'm closer to learning what I need to bring my original idea to fruition, I still have much to learn. To download and try out my first application click the Currency Converter link in the Download pod to the right or just use the link provided below.

Download Currency Converter