The Apple University consortium is pleased to announce it is offering 20 partially funded places to each of the AUC Xcode Tools workshops to be held in Melbourne on the 30 April – 1 May and Sydney on 7 – 8 May. These places will be assigned based on the information provided in the application form.

Every copy of Mac OS X comes with a suite of professional-standard developer tools, based around the Xcode integrated development environment (IDE). This AUC workshop explores the use of Xcode and other Apple tools throughout the software development process. Particular attention will be paid to enhancements in Mac OS X Leopard, including the new Instruments performance tool and the fully-redesigned Interface Builder 3.

What are the Xcode Tools?

The Xcode Tools suite provides all of the facilities you need to build a program for Mac OS X, whether it’s an application, kernel extension, or command-line tool. The Xcode application includes a full-featured code editor, a debugger, compilers, and a linker. It provides a user interface to many industry-standard and open-source tools, including GCC, Java compilers, and GDB.

The suite also includes many other applications. Interface Builder is a visual design tool you use to create the user interfaces of your Mac OS X applications. Instruments is an application for dynamically tracing and profiling Mac OS X code, helping you tune your code's performance.

Who should attend?

The workshop is aimed specifically at students who study computing science, computer engineering, information technology, mathematics or related disciplines and/or have an interest in developing software for computers. Staff from member Universities are also welcome to attend. It is expected that those who attend will have some computer programming experience using languages like but not limited to Java and C/C++. It is not expected that students have experience programming on the Mac OS X platform previously.

What will I learn at the Workshop?

This workshop will introduce key features of the Xcode suite and how you can use the various applications to develop software for Mac OS X. While the focus will be on the tools, examples and exercises will give a taste of exciting Mac developer features like Objective-C 2.0, Core Data, Core Animation and Cocoa Bindings.

Key topics to be covered are outlined below.

• Xcode Fundamentals
• Cocoa Basics
• Working with Code
• Data and Class Modelling
• Customising your Xcode Environment
• Using Interface Builder
• Xcode Debugging and GDB
• Performance Tuning with Instruments and Shark
• Unit Testing
• Beyond Objective-C
• Customising the Build Process
• Code Reuse and Frameworks
• Deployment Techniques

Dates & Venue

The AUC Xcode Tools Workshop will be at the following venues on these dates:

• Melbourne, 30 April - 1 May 2009 at Cliftons Training Centre
• Sydney, 7 – 8 May 2009 at Cliftons Training Centre

Each session commences at 9:00am and will conclude at roughly 5:00pm.

AUC Subsidy 



The AUC will be offering a subsidised place at the closest Xcode Tools workshop to AUC students/staff at member Universities on first come, first served basis.  Participants are required to pay a small registration fee ($50 for students/$100 for staff). The AUC will send attendees a Tax Invoice once participants are confirmed in the program.

Accommodation & Travel
The workshops will run over two days in Sydney and Melbourne. Ideally participants from Victoria, South Australian, Western Australian and Tasmanian Universities should participate in the Melbourne workshop, while participants from New South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory institutions should enroll in the Sydney workshop. This is to ensure that there is a even number of participants at each location, that said the AUC is flexible on this.

Participants will need to organise their own flights and accommodation to attend the event. The AUC nor Apple can assist with organising flights or accommodation.

Subsidy Inclusions
The AUC subsidy provides participants with one nights accomodation up to $150 (inc-GST, room and taxes only) two nights if participants are coming in from WA, NT or FNQ. Return economy airfare (base airfare and mandatory taxes only) if required based on Virgin Blue discounted rates. Also included is morning and afternoon teas, lunch each day and a hardcopy of the training materials.

In the spirit on ensuring continued interest after the workshop the AUC is offering each participant a Student ADC (Apple Developer Connection Membership) for one year on a claims basis after the course.

Airfare, accommodation and ADC Student membership costs are claimable after the course from the AUC by filling in the AUC Claims form.

Enrolment Process

To take advantage of the AUC Xcode Workshop you must complete the application form on the AUC web site by the 5pm (Sydney time) on 20 March 2009. Your enrolement will be confirmed by the 27 March 2009.

Xcode Workshop Application Form

If you have any questions regarding this program please call +61 2 4221 5230 and speak with Andrew Jeffrey or email ajeffrey@auc.edu.au .