iPad Programming Guide

Introduction

The introduction of iPad creates new opportunities for application development using iOS. Because it runs iOS, an iPad is capable of running all of the same applications already being written for iPhone and iPod touch. However, the larger screen size of iPad also means that there are now new opportunities for you to create applications that go beyond what you might have done previously.
This document introduces the new features available for iPad and shows you how to use those features in your applications. However, just because a feature is available does not mean that you have to use it. As a result, this document also provides guidance about when and how you might want to use any new features in order to help you create compelling applications for your users.

Prerequisites

Before reading this document, you should already be familiar with the development process for iPhone applications. The process for developing iPad applications and iPhone applications is very similar and so should be considered a starting point. If you need information about the architecture or development process for iPhone applications (and iPad applications by extension), see iOS Application Programming Guide.

Organization of This Document

This document contains the following chapters:

• “About iPad Development” provides an introduction to the platform, including information about new features you can include in your iPad applications.
• “Starting Your Project” explains the options for porting iPhone applications and shows you how to set up your Xcode projects to support iPad development.
• “The Core Application Design” describes the basic application architecture for iPad along with information about how you use some new core features.
• “Views and View Controllers” describes the new interface elements for the platform and provides examples of how you use them.
• “Gesture Recognizers” describes how to use the new gesture-recognizer technology to process touch events and trigger actions.
• “Graphics and Drawing” describes how to use the new drawing-related technologies.
• “Custom Text Processing and Input” describes new text-related features and explains how you can better incorporate text into your application.

See Also

To develop iPad applications, you use many of the same techniques and processes that you use to develop iPhone applications. If you are unfamiliar with the design process for iPhone applications, you should refer to the following documents for more information:

• For information about the general architecture of an iPad application, see iOS Application Programming Guide.
• For information about view controllers and the crucial role they play in implementing your application infrastructure, see View Controller Programming Guide for iOS.
• For information about the human interface guidelines you should follow when implementing your iPad application, see iPad Human Interface Guidelines.