We're now ready to download and install Xcode 12. 1
This is the application that we'll be using to write our code and build our iOS apps. 2
It's developed by Apple and it's free to download 3
so you don't have to worry about paying for it or paying for upgrades or any of that. 4
But before we start, there's a couple of things that you need to check to ensure that your download 5
and installation go smoothly. 6
First thing is to make sure that you have enough space on your hard drive. 7
Xcode is a large piece of software. 8
At the time of recording, Xcode alone takes up about 12 gigabytes. 9
But you also have to make an allowance for the iPhone simulators that you'll probably download afterward. 10
The simulators can easily take up an additional two gigabytes. 11
So overall, I recommend you have at least 25 to 30 gigabytes free on your hard drive. 12
Why 25 to 30 instead of just 14? 13
Well, if you are to use up every last bit of the space on your disc, your computer will slow down 14
massively and will be hugely frustrating to actually use. 15
So have some free space in addition to what you need for the download and make sure that it's over 25 16
gigabytes. 17
So first check to make sure that you have enough space. 18
And to do that, it's pretty simple. 19
Just head over to the Apple icon at the top of your menu bar and go to about this Mac. 20
And when you're here, you can click on the storage tab to see how much free space you have to play 21
with. 22
So the next thing that you need to check is to make sure that your macOS, your operating system, is 23
updated to the latest version. 24
So to make sure that you've got the right operating system, it's as simple as going to the Apple icon 25
and going to again about this Mac 26
and you can see here which version you've got. And ideally, you'll be on Mac OS Big Sur, but at minimum 27
you should be running Mac OS Catalina 10.15.4 or above. 28
And depending on the age of your laptop, you might be limited to a previous version of macOS, something 29
like macOS High Sierra or Mojave. 30
In these cases, you won't be able to install the latest version of Xcode, which is Xcode 12. 31
In that case, you can follow one of my previous courses, such as the iOS 11 or iOS 12 courses. 32
So once you've done those two things, the last thing that you need to make sure is that don't download 33
a beta version of Xcode. It's actually not that easy to download it by accident, because as long as 34
you're going through this video and following along with what we're doing, you can be downloading the 35
official release version of Xcode and you won't have any problems. 36
The reason why we don't like our students to be working with Betas is because beta software is meant for 37
testing so it can contain bugs and it might end up giving you more headaches than it's worth. 38
So no betas, stick with what we're going to do and you'll have a much, much better experience developing 39
for iOS. 40
All right. 41
So let's go ahead and do it together. 42
So head over to the App Store. 43
You can either use a spotlight by holding down command and spacebar to bring it up using the shortcut, 44
or you can head over to the spotlight icon over here. 45
Or if you want to be really fancy, you can even get Siri to do it for you. 46
Siri, open the App Store. 47
There we go. So head over to the search bar here and just type in Xcode, and then hit enter and you 48
can see it come up over here. 49
And if you just click on this button here, you'll be able to install it onto your system. 50
Now, this can take a little while and sometimes you'll see it just hanging and it refuses to do anything. 51
So have a look and see if some of those things I mentioned earlier might be the problem. 52
So downloading Xcode can take anywhere between 30 minutes to two hours depending on your network connection. 53
You have to make sure that you have a good, strong, stable network connection so that it doesn't fail 54
in the middle of downloading. 55
Now, while you're waiting, it might be worth heading over to a bonus video that I've included which 56
is a talk that I often give to companies as well as students on how to make an app from beginning to 57
end. 58
But once you're done with downloading Xcode, then feel free to head over to the next lesson where we're 59
going to get started by looking at Xcode and walking through all of the important parts.