Trouble creating UINavigationController to push just one VC - objective-c

Question

I'm having trouble on such as trivial but fundamental concept in XCode.
I just want to be able to create an app from scratch and be presented with my root view controller and push and pop some VC for practice.
Believe me, I looked at tons of posts and none of them seem to do the trick.
So my steps were, I created a new xcode project, and created an empty application. I figure hell, lets learn here, instead of creating a single view app.
I went to new file then added a obj-c class and created the XIB with it. I called it RootViewController.
So here's my app delegate h file.
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "RootViewController.h"
UINavigationController *navVC;
#interface VCTestAppDelegate : UIResponder <UIApplicationDelegate>
#property (strong, nonatomic) UIWindow *window;
#property (retain, nonatomic) UINavigationController *navVC;
#property (readonly, strong, nonatomic) NSManagedObjectContext *managedObjectContext;
#property (readonly, strong, nonatomic) NSManagedObjectModel *managedObjectModel;
#property (readonly, strong, nonatomic) NSPersistentStoreCoordinator *persistentStoreCoordinator;
- (void)saveContext;
- (NSURL *)applicationDocumentsDirectory;
#end
Notice I'm creating my own UINavigationController called, navVC.
Then here's the beginning and relevant section of my appledelegate m file...
#import "VCTestAppDelegate.h"
#implementation VCTestAppDelegate
#synthesize managedObjectContext = _managedObjectContext;
#synthesize managedObjectModel = _managedObjectModel;
#synthesize persistentStoreCoordinator = _persistentStoreCoordinator;
#synthesize navVC;
- (BOOL)application:(UIApplication *)application didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:(NSDictionary *)launchOptions
{
UIViewController *VC1 = [[UIViewController alloc]initWithNibName:#"RootViewController" bundle:nil];
navVC = [[UINavigationController alloc]initWithRootViewController:VC1];
[[self window] setRootViewController:navVC];
[self.window makeKeyAndVisible];
return YES;
}
And I just created a label on that root VC to verify its showing. Well, nope. No syntax errors and no crashing, the simulator just shows a black screen. What on earth and I doing? Then once I figure this out, I want practice to push and pop view controllers.
I can't believe I can't figure this out. I recently published my own app, but using storyboards. I want to move on to another project now but I want more solid fundamentals without using storyboards. I don't want to limit users of just iOS 5 and higher.
And by the way, I even tried by starting a single view application and adding a VC and when I click my button, it "should"; push the 2nd VC. I know the syntax for that, but when I tested the other app I was messing with, it would go into the IBAction block for the button but it would not push that VC....
I tried [self navigationController] pushview... I even tried just [navVC pushview...] nothing works.
I don't understand what I'm missing and how people made apps manually (programmatically before storyboards).
Any help would be super appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

You need to create the window. If you look at the default code for an Empty Application, it will have this line:
self.window = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]];
If you're creating a simple application for practice, what are you doing with the core data stuff?

Answer 2

The only I can think of is that the UIWindow *window that your app needs is currently nil.
You said you made a XIB: try associating the "window" and "NavigationController" outlets to the correct controllers in the XIB.
Control+click from the controller to the window view. It should give you an option to click on "window". This should associate the window with the controller. Try doing the same with the UINavigationController's controller and view.