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How long does it take for an experienced Windows programmer to learn writing simple software for Mac OS X?
Where does one start and what tools will be necessary?
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To become a macOS developer, you will need two things: A Mac running macOS Big Sur: The macOS operating system only runs on Apple computers, so you need a Mac both to develop and run macOS apps. Xcode: This is the IDE used to create macOS apps. You'll learn how to install this later in this section.
macOS is one of the most versatile operating systems for developing software. Whether you're developing Android, iOS, web, or desktop apps, macOS has the tools to do it all. The biggest advantage of macOS is the ability to develop native iOS apps and many others through Xcode.
Non-native platforms, like Flutter or React Native, won't make iOS builds without Mac either. Storyboards can be edited only in Xcode, so development without Xcode means development without Storyboards. Alternative IDEs for iOS development require Xcode. You don't need to run it, but you should have it installed.
THIS. I came from a Win32 API background programming lately a lot in C# and I was able to pick up on Objective-C and Cocoa very quickly by working through the book. You will be pleasantly surprised, the APIs are very rich and just wonderful. Reflection is a first class citizen which makes things very easy.
Xcode is of course free and available on your Mac OS X installation disk.
Edit: it took me about 2 weeks to come up to speed and write simple applications. I think this is because the language and API are easy to learn and use and Aaron Hillegass's book was a big help.
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You might want to check this post for info - pretty much a duplicate question to this one. Definitely just go with Xcode and I think you'll find the Mac community pretty helpful - I have, at least.
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