Before you can start to code your very first app you have to decide on which software system you want to provide your app and what programming language you want to use. The most popular software systems are Android provided by Google or iOS from Apple.

Coding for Android requires knowledge of the programming language Java and Android SDK.

iOS only runs with Apple devices and so does the programming landscape XCode, therefore you will need an Apple computer with Mac OSX. In order to code an app for iOS devices you need to know the languages Objective-C or Swift.

If you want to start programming you have different possibilities to start. In the following unit we focus on available technologies.

Native Apps

Native Apps are written in the languages for the already mentioned software systems (Objective-C, Cocoa).

Web Apps (HTML5-Apps)

A technology to begin with if you are not sure what to code or where to start. You start learning Javascript and start coding web apps, which can be easily converted into mobile versions used on mobile devices by using emulators. An emulator is a system which clones a programme from one architecture into another structure or system. With an emulator you can convert a Web App into one usable for other systems (e.g. Android).