So I am currently using Xamarin for multi-platform mobile applications. I really like the way this works, and I want to improve my flow. My developers have said that they would be much faster when programming natively (i.e. Swift for iOS in XCode).
I have looked for a solution, where I can create a shared project and use it in native apps, but I have only found ways that involve programming in one language for all platforms.
Is there a way to create a shared project, which can be imported into a native application (or better, can be run together, like a shared project in Xamarin)?
The language for the shared code is not important, as long as it isn't slow.
My developers have said that they would be much faster when programming natively (i.e. Swift for iOS in XCode)
Swift can be used natively for iOS apps. RemObjects' Silver is supposed to make Swift ready for Android and .NET. I've never tested it. Try it out, it's free.
RoboVM can be used to write iOS apps in Java. I didn't try it out either.
Language mixing with Xamarin
In case you want to mix Swift code with C# code using Xamarin then you can bind Objective-C compatible Swift code and use it in iOS projects only. You are not able to execute Swift code on Android or Windows Phone! It's not possible to write platform independent business logic in Swift and and use it in a shared library or PCL with Xamarin.
You face the same restrictions for Java code on Android: You can bind JARs and use them in a Xamarin.Android project but you cannot use them on iOS or Windows Phone.
You are also unable to execute C# code in a Swift based app on iOS or in a Java based app on Android.
You can use native code in Xamarin apps via Binding Libraries. You cannot use Xamarin libraries in native apps.
If the goal is to use truly native tooling, in their standard languages (meaning not Xamarin) and still share code between iOS and Android, this can be achieved by writing your non-UI code in C++.
Here's a very interesting article about how Dropbox does exactly this.
C++ is natively supported on iOS and it is very easy to interface
between Objective-C and C++ using Objective-C++.
On Android, calling into C++ can be done through the NDK, which
reportedly is not a pleasure to use. Dropbox found Google’s meta-build
system gyp to work reasonably well. In addition, the Java Native
Interface is a pain you have to accept. But none of these issues is a
roadblock, and Steven expressed hope that Google or the community will
build better tooling support over time.
And here's a simple example of how to do this from another StackOverflow post
I'd like to start developing applications for iPhone, but I'd really like to use OCaml rather than Objective-C. After some googling, it seems like this is definitely possible, but I haven't found any code snippets which actually compile.
Is it possible to write iPhone apps using OCaml? If so, could you provide a snippet demonstrating how to make calls into the Cocoa API from OCaml?
We have instructions for building an OCaml-to-iOS cross compiler on our site. We started with the patches mentioned above, but we found they needed to be modified in several ways to run on a stock iPhone/iPad. We are selling an iPhone app named Cassino that is entirely written in OCaml (except for thin wrappers to Cocoa Touch). Wrappers for all of Cocoa Touch would be a big job, but wrappers for a single application aren't so bad. And coding in OCaml is very pleasant compared to ObjC.
We also just published full sources for a small OCaml iPhone app named Portland at our site. Read more at psellos.com.
Out of the box, OCaml cannot be used to build IPhone apps. You would have to have OCaml output ARM code rather than x86 code. You would also have to build wrappers for all the IPhone API calls.
Still, these guys are going through the pain to try this.
http://web.yl.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~tosh/ocaml-on-iphone/
My humble recomendation is that you focus on using Obj-C for everything. If
you really want an ML, use it only for the kernel or the interesting portion.
I would find an *ML that code gens to something like C, and then use that result
as a library to the app.
Good luck.
I'm still getting my feet wet with the iPhone SDK, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to get the ConnectionKit framework working for an iPhone app. I know it was developed for the desktop OS, so I'm not sure what sort of dependencies it has and whether or not it could be shoehorned into the iPhone OS.
In my case, I would like to use its FTP functionality, though having access to this entire framework could prove useful for future projects as well.
Any ideas or experience trying this?
In case it helps, here's the official ConnectionKit site: http://opensource.utr-software.com/connection/
The site was a little light on documentation.
The big question is what Cocoa classes it depends on. Since it is doesn't include any UI code, it should be based on Foundation classes. Foundation in Cocoa Touch is similar to, but not exactly the same as on OS X. Just check out what classes it uses.
The other obstacle is building the framework as a static library. Since the iPhone does not support frameworks/dynamic libraries, you have to build a static library to use it in your code.
That should help get you started.
There are two primary issues. One is static library and other is NSHost class that is supported by cocoa - but not cocoa touch. First one is doable - but the second one is doable if and only if you are familiar with Mac OS networking internals.
Hi I'm looking into iPhone development, and Objective-C is not be my preferred language. As far as I can see at this moment Ruby cannot be used to talk to Cocoa Touch at the moment on the iPhone.
So my question is, am I wrong? Can I use Ruby on the iPhone to develop Cocoa Touch applications. And what is the future looking like for Ruby on the iPhone?
Now you can with RubyMotion
In the iPhone OS, mprotect() will fail if you try to use it to mark writable sections of memory as executable. This breaks bridges like RubyCocoa (and probably MacRuby) that use libffi to create Objective-C method handlers at runtime. I believe that this is by design because it was not always the case.
Ultimately, this is more a matter of platform politics than technology, but a technical workaround for this exists. Instead of generating custom method handlers at runtime, precompile a pool of reconfigurable ones that are assigned as needed, essentially making the bridging process entirely data-driven. As far as I know, this is not yet being done in RubyCocoa or MacRuby.
Another significant thing to consider is that the compiled Ruby and RubyCocoa runtimes can be significantly larger than compiled Objective-C apps. If these libraries were available on the iPhone, this wouldn't be an issue, but for now, even if you had RubyCocoa working, you might not want to use it for apps that you distribute.
No, you are correct. Currently, and most likely for the foreseeable future, Ruby will not be an option, at least for AppStore applications. There's no reason you couldn't do this on a Jailbroken phone, but Apple is pretty wed to Objective C for official development.
You are better off as a programmer knowing a number of different languages - think of Objective-C as a good learning opportunity.
I've found that things you learn in other languages often make you a better programmer overall, and give you new insights into other languages you already know.
rhomobile is an option to run ruby code on the iPhone, but it's essentially web app development. A web server runs locally on the iPhone and your ruby code renders to standard client side web technologies (html/css/javascript).
http://rhomobile.com/
Actually, the ruby cocoa bridge isn't awkward at all; things work remarkably smoothly, right down to connecting outlets in IB etc. The resulting code is down right beautiful.
As for iPhone development, if you want an official AppStore application, you're out of luck unfortunately. Apple dictated that iPhone is Obj-C/Cocoa Touch, and there's a clause in the SDK license saying that one of the things they will reject an app for is having a language interpreter/JIT compiler, so you couldn't add a ruby interpreter in your app yourself.
Off topic, but hilariously, this is why Flash for the iPhone is Adobe blowing smoke. They couldn't get a swf player onto the AppStore even if they wanted to, per Apple's license.
Uh, Rhodes (Rhomobile) does allow you to do native apps on the iPhone and all other smartphones. Yes, we do leverage doing rendering via the WebUIView control. But we allow all device capabilities and synchronized local data.
You might want to take a look at shinycocos. It is a child project of cocos2d-iphone, an Objective-C game programming framework for iPhone.
I haven't yet played with it, but from the git README I infer that it bundles Ruby 1.9.1 into your app.
I installed the ruby package from Cydia on my iPod Touch 1G jailbroken on 3.1.3:
Seems to work.
Now as for cocoa-touch that is a whole different story I would assume.
Take a look at http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-mobile/
"Native iPhone and Android apps built with Web technologies."
Sounds good isn't it ? ;-)
No you can not create iOS native app in Ruby.
There is only two options for native apps for mac and iOS:-
Objective C and Swift Programming Language
Tutorials:-
Apple's official tutorial on Objective C
Apple's official tutorial on Swift Programing Language
If you are familiar with Ruby and only want to create iOS apps by Ruby. Ruby Motion, can be a cross-platform option for you, but it is not free.
Cross-Platforms
RubyMotion
Xamarin required .net skills
appcelerator HTML,XML,CSS,JS skills required
phonegap HTML,XML,CSS,JS skills required
I imagine it won't work right now, but I'd imagine that you'll eventually be able to use MacRuby to build iphone apps. Apple are putting a lot of work into it
Here's a link to an ADC article describing how to build normal cocoa apps
You don't have to use Objective-C to write iPhone apps. If you use QuickConnectiPhone, http://sourceforge.net/projects/quickconnect/, you can write it completely in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML and still have an installable application not a web app.
If you know ruby you are probably working with JavaScript already.
To see how to install it, run it, and other ideas go to tetontech.wordpress.com
There's an open-source Ruby-Cocoa bridge you might try to get working. But I gather that there's a bit of an impedance mismatch between Ruby and ObjC that makes it a bit awkward to use.
The Ruby Cocoa bridge probably will not work. Most of the bridges for dynamic languages need to generate executable thunks (either manually or with libffi). More limited bridges (for more static languages) may not have such issues.
In either event, bringing up a bridge is probably going to require becoming more familiar with the Objective C runtime than one would just learning how to write Cocoa Touch apps, which probably defeats the point of doing it in the first place.
Currently isnt true, Apple change their policies, take a look at ShinyCocos, is a ruby bindings for the Cocos2D-iphone game framework.
https://github.com/funkaster/shinycocos
One possible solution would be to create an application wrapping for example the rice library (google it) which includes a ruby-vm. I reckon you would be able to create c++ wrappers that you could expose to ruby, thus making an environment for iphone development with ruby. This probably requires a lot of work though ^^
what language is it similar to? cause i was looking at the dev page on apple for the iphone and it doesnt look like anything that i'm used to or know.
iPhone applications are created using objective-C as the primary language. You can also use C/C++ in the applications, but the Cocoa Touch API uses objective-C.
Also, if you have never programmed on the Mac before it will take some getting used to. Apple uses the MVC (Model View Controller) design pattern extensively in their programming model.
Here is a good site with several iPhone apps with source code:
http://appsamuck.com/
If you need a crash course in objective-C check out this link:
http://cocoadevcentral.com/d/learn_objectivec/
It's Objective-C.
Here's Apple's Programming Guide Introduction
As others have pointed out, the answer is Objective-C. For current production-ready languages, that's it. In the not-yet production ready category, it looks like the Mono folks are able to cross-compile C# to native code for deployment on the iPhone using the Apple toolchain. Much of the CocoaTouch API is not yet exposed to Mono, but it's a start.
Objective-C
Objective-C