How To Use Xcode On Windows

Do yous want to develop software for Mac Os Ten or iOS? It's easy to create apps for Linux and Windows on any platform, only developing software for Mac requires a tool set chosen XCode, designed and built by Apple specifically for Mac Os X.

What is Xcode?

Xcode is an integrated evolution environment, or IDE, that Apple designed specifically for Mac OS X. An IDE integrates a lot of tools that a programmer can employ to help them write code, like automatic code completion, version control back up, syntax highlighting, debugging, compiling, and more. It puts all these tools in the same interface so all yous accept to practise is click a button for some tasks instead of remembering and then running a command in the terminal.

Xcode has back up for many programming languages, including C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, Coffee, AppleScript, Python, Ruby, ResEdit, and Swift. Both Objective-C and Swift are Apple programming languages, making Xcode the default tool for creating iPhone and Mac OSX desktop apps.

Xcode for Windows?

Xcode is only made for Mac Os 10. So if y'all but have a Windows-based PC, yous will have to use some workarounds to run Xcode. And if you want to build iPhone apps or desktop applications for Mac OS X, you may need access to a Mac Bone 10 reckoner. Fortunately, there are many ways to work around this result if you lot have a PC, which we will cover in the upcoming sections.

Rent a Mac in the cloud

A Mac is an expensive piece of hardware. Why buy ane if you are but going to use it to develop a Mac Bone X or iPhone app? Other people have had this same thought, and modern cloud computing has made it possible to rent a Mac only when y'all demand information technology. Y'all tin even hire a Mac virtual automobile by the hour.

Virtual machines make it possible to install operating systems that run in the cloud. Since they are virtual, they can be ready to utilise in seconds, and when washed with them, the virtual machine can be destroyed, with no trace of sensitive data left behind. For years, you could become virtual machines that ran Windows or Linux. Now you tin can rent Mac Os 10 virtual machines at places like MacStadium, MacinCloud, and XcodeClub.

While renting a Mac Bone X virtual machine by the hour is economic, if y'all are using information technology for a specific task similar edifice an app, planning ahead can save yous fourth dimension. If y'all don't have an Apple account already, make sure that's the first thing you sign upward for on your virtual machine. If you lot plan on using Xcode to develop desktop or iPhone apps on your rented Mac, then you volition want to check that the software is installed. Xcode is free for the Mac OSX, but it doesn't come up preinstalled. Some cloud providers volition pre-install it so you don't have to spend your time downloading and installing it. More details on installing Xcode are in the adjacent section, Run a Virtual Mac.

Once you rent your Mac, you will sign into it using RDP, which already comes on your Windows installation, or by using a VNC customer. You will so enter the IP address of the Mac yous rented in either the RDP or VNC client. In one case connected to the virtual auto, y'all will utilize your username and password to log in. This volition take you to the Mac OSX login screen. Hither yous will apply the password again to log in to the desktop.

Run a virtual Mac

Setting upward virtual box

Yous can likewise create the virtual machine itself and run it locally on your Windows PC. This is surprisingly easy to exercise with virtualization software like VMWare WorkStation or the open source alternative VirtualBox. You volition be doing what Mac cloud providers are doing, simply on your own, and then you won't have to pay a rental fee.

For the purpose of this guide, we'll exist using VirtualBox to fix the virtual machine. If y'all use a dissimilar virtual reckoner application, the procedure is like. Since VirtualBox is open source and free to use, information technology'due south worth downloading it if you don't already have a copy installed.

Running a virtual reckoner is quite a demanding process, and you'll need to take a fairly powerful PC for it to operate successfully. Y'all'll also need a PC with hardware similar to that of a standard, Apple-constructed iMac, MacBook, or Mac Pro.

To successfully emulate a Mac using a Windows PC, you'll need the following:

A Dual-Core Intel processor
At least 2GB of RAM (4GB+ recommended)
Hardware Virtualization

Y'all'll also need an installation file for Mac Bone X. You lot can purchase this online from the Apple Store or, if you lot already ain a MacBook, iMac, or Mac Pro, y'all can use the install disc you received with your computer.

Once you've installed VirtualBox, open the application and choose to install Mac Bone Ten Server 64 Bit. Provide the virtual calculator with at to the lowest degree 2GB of RAM (If y'all accept more 8GB of RAM, choose 4GB+.) and more than 30GB of hard disk drive space.

VirtualBox will automatically configure the operating organisation, merely you'll still need to make a few changes manually. Open the Settings menu and brand the following changes:

On the System tab, uncheck Enable EFI
On the Processor tab, select at least two CPUs
On the Display tab, increase the video memory to at least 128MB

Installing Mac Bone X

Now you will need a copy of the Mac Bone 10 operating arrangement. Y'all can get that from the App Store or by borrowing a re-create. Yous may also be able to find virtual deejay images that already take the Mac OS X installed. For these, all you have to do is mount the virtual image in Virtual Box, and you will take a virtual Mac running.

If you lot have the install image for Mac OS X, you will have to become through the installation procedure. Only mount the virtual installation disk to the virtual car you created for your new machine in Virtual Box. If the virtual auto is already running, y'all may have to restart it for information technology to choice up the installation disk.

Once the virtual installation disk is running on your virtual Mac, y'all should be able to follow the wizard to install Mac OS X to it. This process may take a few minutes, and y'all will need to either have or create a new valid Apple ID in society to complete the installation. Once the operating system finishes installing, you can move on to installing Xcode.

Installing Xcode

Once you lot've configured your Mac Bone X virtual motorcar, installing Xcode is relatively easy. Before you install Xcode, you lot'll want to configure your virtual machine to your preferred resolution and settings using the System Preferences menu.

From hither, installing Xcode is simple. Open up the App Store application from the dock and type "Xcode" into the search bar. Yous might need to re-enter your business relationship details or enter them for the first time if you didn't do so during Mac OS X configuration.

Navigate to the Xcode app and click Install Now to download it. If you don't take an Apple account, you'll need to create one in order to download the Xcode toolset for your virtual machine.

Xcode is quite a large application, and downloading information technology could take from a minute to several hours, depending on your Internet connection speed. Once downloaded, open Applications and click "Xcode" to launch the installer.

Upon completion of the installation process, you can use XCode in your virtual machine to programme apps for Mac Os or iOS. You tin can too download other Mac apps to use on your virtual machine.

Build a "Hackintosh"

If yous don't have a Mac, yous always have the pick of edifice one. Although we said that Mac Os X and Xcode are but designed to run on Apple tree hardware, it'southward possible to install Mac OS 10 on a standard PC, though it may take some work.

People that swear by Apple tree products liked its integration, merely Apple is besides a closed system. Apple tree hardware is custom-built for the estimator, while much of the hardware running Linux or Windows is interchangeable. Apple software must run on Apple hardware.

Before 2006, Mac computers actually used a different type of processor than the standard PC. Apple tree had the CPU specifically created for Apple devices. In that environment, it was well-nigh incommunicable to go Mac OS X to run on a PC, but that didn't stop the "Hackintosh" customs. In 2006, Apple started using an Intel CPU, which makes creating a "Hackintosh" a little simpler. Apple has moved to a custom CPU in their recent hardware releases. Only all recent Os X releases tin run on an Intel processor, and then the steps for turning a standard PC into a machine that can run the Mac operating arrangement should be the same. Another option is creating a dual-kicking figurer and installing both Windows and Mac Bone X on the aforementioned motorcar. When you kicking the computer, you will have the option of starting either the Windows or the Mac desktop.

Simply creating a "Hackintosh" is quite avant-garde and beyond the telescopic of this article. That said, converting a standard PC to run Mac may exist express in the future, in one case Apple'south new CPU becomes the norm. Y'all may have to settle for an older version of Mac OSX that all the same supports the Intel processor.

Buy a secondhand Mac

If you plan on developing Mac OS 10 or iPhone apps ofttimes and if you don't want to bargain with setting up your own virtual auto, logging into your computer on the deject, or configuring a PC to run Mac Os X, yous might want to pause down and just buy a Mac.

You can find bang-up deals on old MacBook Pros on sites like eBay. Upon the release of a new generation of MacBooks, Apple fans blitz to get the newest model and often put their old machines up for sale. If you lot buy a MacBook that is only a few years old, it volition non only still have some AppleCare left, but as well not much of the hardware will have changed. Y'all should exist able to update to the latest version of Mac OS X and have a motorcar you can develop Mac OS X and iPhone apps on for a fraction of the price.

Buy a Mac Mini

Another direction you lot can take as a Windows user who wants to develop apps for Apple products is buying a Mac Mini. The Mac Mini is a small, portable estimator that runs Mac Bone X. The Mac Mini also has all the ports you need to connect to hardware like monitors, mice, keyboards, and external hard drives, merely similar a full-size computer. So you can build a whole calculator organisation around a Mac Mini or utilise it remotely and connect to it with RDP or VNC from your Windows PC just like you would a virtual machine. It also costs a fraction of what a MacBook Pro or iMac would.

Other options for developing Mac apps

In the options above, we focused on making sure we had a Mac Bone X environment to develop on. Just yous may not need Mac Bone X or Xcode to write code that will run on a Mac or on an iPhone. There are other options.

Swift runs on Windows and Linux

In recent years, both Microsoft and Apple have at least partially embraced open source software. One style that Apple did this was by making the Swift programming language open source. So you don't actually need to exist running Mac OS 10 in society to write lawmaking in Swift. Swift now compiles and runs on both Linux and Windows. Swift even supports some of the Windows Desktop GUI. To showtime developing with Swift on Windows, visit Introducing Swift on Windows.

Create iOS apps using cross platform tools

If the reason you are exploring using Mac Os Ten and Xcode is iPhone app development, you're in luck. There are plenty of cross platform frameworks you can use that make it possible to develop iPhone apps on either Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Mobile developers usually either have to specialize in developing iPhone apps or Android apps. The platforms use completely dissimilar programming languages, so cross platform tools make it possible to employ a single lawmaking base to compile apps for both the iOS and Android operating systems.

In that location are quite a few of these frameworks bachelor. If you are running Windows, Xamarin may be the best option. With Xamarin, y'all can develop a telephone app in the Windows-friendly C# programming linguistic communication. If you lot already know web development technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, either PhoneGap or Ionic would be the correct selection because they utilize spider web-based technologies to generate phone apps. If you accept skills in JavaScript in general and React in particular, then effort React Native. React Native uses React and JavaScript to interact with the native operating organisation in either Android or iOS.

Use an online Swift sandbox to test your code

If you want to effort programming in Swift, Apple's most popular programming language, you don't even need a specific blazon of operating system. You tin can plan online from your phone if you lot want. Sites similar Online Swift Playground and Swift Fiddle volition allow yous write, run, and test your Swift code in the browser.

Decision

If y'all want to develop apps for Mac Os Ten or the Apple iPhone, y'all don't necessarily need a Mac calculator. In that location are quite a few options for Windows users. You tin can hire a Mac computer through a deject provider. You can create a Mac virtual machine and run OS X about. You tin even hack a standard PC then that Mac OS X tin run on it. Swift is also cross-platform at present, so you can write Swift lawmaking on Windows and Linux. And if you are developing telephone apps, there are enough of frameworks available that let you lot build mobile apps for both Android and iOS on Windows, Mac, or Linux.