Get Xcode
To simply download Xcode you will have to register for the free developer program membership registration. Register at the http://developer.apple.com/ and then you can download Xcode from there.
The size of Xcode is somewhere between 2 and 3 Gb. The size changes from version to version as some releases do not contain all packages for all iPhone OS releases, sorry that’s iOS now. Later I will tell you about Base and Target OS version inside Xcode. For the moment lets stay with Xcode.
As it is a large download and it might stop for what ever reason try to use Safari. Safari can retry, Firefox did not always retried ok. For Firefox download some manager exists but I found Safari easier to use when downloading such a large packet like Xcode.
Install Xcode
After the download you are ready to install Xcode. The default directory is /Developer. You can select a different destination, for example when you need a particular version of iOS. And before overwriting a tried and trusted version of Xcode better choose a different name and install it next to your important version of Xcode.
For example not all betas of Xcode for iOS4 came with the old iPhone os 3.x versions, and you might want to keep the previous version of Xcode.
Recently the preview for Xcode 4 became available, I have put it under /Xcode4Preview4.
Space
The installation of Xcode takes some minutes and will consume around 5 Gb on your boot volume. Several of the unix tools cannot be relocated to a different volume, that is why you are best off with keeping it on the boot volume. I always had the space free and never bother to relocate it to a different volume. Different folder yes, different volume no.
Finding the Icon
During installation and also later Xcode never created an icon on my mac. Initially I was hunting around trying to find the folder from where to start it. It is under /Developer/Applications/Xcode.app. When it is finally running right-click (CTRL-click) on the icon in the Dock, goto Options and select “Keep in Dock”.
Next steps
With Xcode in front of you you are ready to start coding. Before I send you to the next part head over to Stackoverflow and look at these two entries:
What are those little Xcode tips & tricks you wish you knew about 2 years ago?
alternatives to XCode for iPhone development? (OR: how to make XCode suck less?)
Another a pool of wisdom is the Apple library: Search for xcode and introduction
The next part will look at coding itself: Objective-C and stuff.
