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As Apple has removed the restriction for java and flash should I go for these tools or just continue developing iPhone/iPad apps using Apple tools(Xcode, objective C .. etc).
I want to know the benefits of using apple tool instead of java or flash.
Thanks
Java is not an option anyway. There is no Java runtime for the iPhone that you can use to produce apps.
This is a no brainer. For iPhone, use Apple's SDK. You'll get latest APIs first than in any other platform, better performance, and, what's even more important, you are sure that Apple will keep pushing its API. With other products (like Java, Flash or Mono) you will always fear they changing their policies when they want. No guarantees.
It really depends on what kinds of apps you are making.
If you are just making a basic app, that you want to look like the standard Apple apps, you shouldn't switch.
If you really rely on Flash as a base, you should use that.
If you have little experience with Objective-C and prefer to code in C#/.NET, you may go for MonoTouch.
It really depends on your preferations, but if you want the most stable, reliable, and supported platform, you should go with Objective-C.
In my eyes, you should really only be using anything other than the standard Objective-C if it is utterly necessary, as others have pointed out; with Apple, you get the latest API's first, better performance, etc.
For new development I would jump in and use Apple's frameworks with Objective-C. If you're entering a new country you should speak their language. However, which development framework you choose will be largely dependent on whether or not you have an existing product. If you're just trying to target a new platform with an existing code-base it may be in your best interest to use an intermediary framework like MonoTouch or Adobe's Packager for iPhone.
If your codebase is Java, you'll be starting from scratch in Objective-C. Java is not currently available in any form on iOS.
If your codebase is in ActionScript 3, you may want to explore Adobe's Packager for iPhone. It will likely have a shorter path to market if your are porting an app already developed on ActionScript 3, but you will always be at the mercy of Adobe's intermediate layers. I know less about the Adobe bindings and how your application actually compiles, so I can't speak to any additional technical-risks there.
If your codebase is in C#, you may want to look at Novell's MonoTouch. Again, this may result in a shorter time to market. You still need to develop on a Mac (MonoDevelop only works on a Mac), and some .NET APIs are not available on Mono.
In any other circumstance I'd pick up Objective-C and use Apple's SDK directly. It's always tough to learn a new language (especially one as different as Objective-C), but it's worth it in the end.
Use the tool that will make the most sense for your goals and the experience you want to provide your users. Apple's lifting of restrictions only removes one risk: that using a framework not endorsed by Apple will be the sole reason for App Store rejection. The lifting of restrictions will not remove other risks that may exist like:
Continued support by third-party vendors (Novell, Adobe) of their frameworks.
Inability to target/test against the newest version of iOS until third-party frameworks add official support.
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A recent post by John Gruber notes that the following legalese:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs.
Has been revised as follows:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
And makes the following observation:
My reading of this new language is that cross-compilers, such as the Flash-to-iPhone compiler in Adobe’s upcoming Flash Professional CS5 release, are prohibited. This also bans apps compiled using MonoTouch — a tool that compiles C# and .NET apps to the iPhone.
Does this in fact ban the use of Monotouch for the IPhone?
Update -
This changed recently. MonoTouch should no longer conflict with
the agreement. Any statements below are purely historical!
Yes, it seems pretty clear from their license agreement now that if the original application is written in C# then it would be violating the license:
...Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine...
They even hammer it in a little further:
Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited
Kind of a bummer, MonoTouch and the Flash CS5 -> iPhone converter are very cool.
Update:
Apple has dropped (almost) all technical requirements for languages and libraries for iOS, so MonoTouch is without a doubt a viable solution. See Apple's announcement.
Most people here simply want to take Apple's document by the word and say "yes, its banned". Well, here's my point of view: at this point, nobody really has any idea if MonoTouch is going to be banned or not, and I'll explain why:
The Apple agreement version 3 (not the latest, the one before) clearly states that its illegal to use any other frameworks to develop applications other than the ones provided by Apple:
3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including
without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise.
No interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run
by Apple's Documented APIs and built-in interpreter(s). http://adcdownload.apple.com/iphone/iphone_sdk_3.2__final/iphone_sdk_agreement.pdf
Even though that's the case (and was actually the case since 2.x, apple doesn't have any problem accepting applications that do exactly that. For example, ALL EA games use Lua scripts, and lots and lots of people use external libraries that are not native to the iPhone. Even when the iPhone has those native APIs, Apple never had a problem accepting applications with different versions of it, like SQLite.
My point is that saying "YES, they'll be banned" right now is simply WAAY too early. The only clear thing at this point is that Apple could in fact use that to ban apps. Just like they accept Apps today that are against some of their rules, they'll probably continuing doing so.
There's also the fact that are hundreds (or probably a few thousands?) of apps in the store currently running Mono, and Apple will need to accept updates for those apps. Major apps with millions of sales were created using Mono (and Lua), and I doubt they would refund every single user.
Lastly, Enterprise applications are deployed to iPhones without Apple's approval, and that's a big market that MonoTouch is on (I myself develop enterprise apps). There's no way at this point that Apple could ban MonoTouch for those applications, and that will probably be enough to keep MonoTouch alive for a long time.
Update:
New changes to sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 have made MonoTouch (and all other cross compilers/languages/etc) perfectly acceptable on the iPhone. See Apple's announcement
Miguel doesn't seem to think so. See the tweet and Miguel's response. Lets not overreact here and say that Monotouch is dead, or stop developing with Monotouch until some clarifications have been made by all parties involved.
That said I would definitely start putting the heat on Apple for such draconian development policies. Things like this, and the nebulous process that is the approval policy of iphone/ipad/touch apps should strike fear into the hearts of developers. What's next, their license stating that the only Ad platform you are allowed to use is iAd? Not allowing the distribution of free apps without iAd? Slowly raising Apple's share of the revenue of app sales? As developers in a locked down eco-system, we are kind of frogs in a pot of hot water, and Apple is slowly turning up the heat. Now is the time to explore other mobile platforms, because as they get better, the main thing holding people to the Apple platform is lack of applications on other platforms.
I spent months of evenings working on ideas for a killer iPhone app in Objective C. My day job is C#. I downloaded MonoTouch C# when it became a viable alternative and have just spent 3 months converting my code to iPhone specific MonoTouch C#. Which stopped me going mad through switching from C#/Objective C.
What do I do now throw it all away and start again or give up!?!
I feel really sorry for the Mono guys. This is plain wrong. It is one thing to stop Adobe who haven't launched their product and have no customers and to stop MonoTouch who do and also have approved product in the AppStore.
Why would anyone want to build a business and invest in Apple when they will take it all away at a moments notice without being answerable or questionable?
Clearly developers and customers of Apple caring for them and their products is a one way street.
I hope Apple gets trounced for this ridiculous policy. Arrogance is not attractive and generally bad for business. This is one of the reasons I haven't started iPhone development.
Most hardware and OS providers are happy to have additional tools and audience to write to their platform. Apple is taking the stance that its (braindead) tools are the only game in town.
The "Big Brother" ad from 1984 is more and more relevant...
EDIT
The way it is written also seems to imply that if I wrote a .net to objective C/apple translator that the code isn't acceptable because the original code was not objective c. That is ludicrous (and unenforceable.)
Unity is also based on Mono and with that being a sizable commercial product I imagine that this is an issue which we've not heard the end of yet.
Banning all apps that are not written in Obj-C/C++ would, in theory ban all Unity games also, of which there are a large number already in the app store.
This question has also been asked over on the Unity Answers site, and their official answer is:
"We just heard about the iPhone OS4.0
and the new Terms-Of-Service. While we
believe we are fully compliant with
these we are right now doing all we
can to get this verified by Apple. As
soon as we know precisely, we will of
course share that info with everybody.
Please hang tight while we get this
sussed out."
Be interesting to see what they get told by Apple.
The thing is, surely saying that an app has to be written in a certain language is a bit of a misnomer, as once the app is compiled down, it's always a native binary regardless how it's been built. My guess is that all they can look for is some kind of signature in the binary to detect what tool it was built with. A flawed approach.
EDIT: There is an interesting overview of the situation on this blog: monotouch now dead in the water what does apples new iphone developer agreement mean
The new license agreement is explicitly clear about that. So YES, it will be banned.
Advice, if you want to really develop for iPhone, try XCode. If you are already familiar with Java or C# or yet better C++, then learning Objective-C wont be that hard.
iPhone/iPad is Apples new successful business, and they will do anything to keep this business growing, maybe they will not ban Monotouch apps now, but who knows there next move? So if you are really really interested in iPhone dev, instead of having nightmares that your work might be just rejected. Just switch to XCode, at least that will lower your app reject percentage. Hence, my advice.
I think something to strongly consider is Apple's motivation.
I agree with other sentiments posted online that Apple is trying to prevent commoditization of applications - that is to say, having more and more applications written using frameworks that generate applications that can run across multiple devices.
But that's not what Monotouch is. Monotouch is all about using the Apple frameworks to write applications - but through Mono, not Objective-C. So from that standpoint what Monotouch is doing is not something that should really bother Apple.
I still hold that developers are better off writing in the native language of the platform they are using, as things are just generally smoother when you don't introduce system that can have abstraction impedance mismatch - the Cocoa frameworks were all built to be used from Objective-C, and they make the most sense when you are used to the philosophy of Objective-C. But I do hope that Apple comes down on the side of allowing MonoTouch to be used.
All Apple is saying is that you must all now use 1980's languages to develop your competition beating state of the art Mobile Applications....
Makes perfect sense. Sounds like a winning strategy to me.
It also stops you from using any 3rd party libraries that you can't guarantee that have been developed in straight C, C++ or Objective C.
So basically it means that you can't buy in Games API's such as Unity.
Just adding my 2 cents. It seems that after reading this part: (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited) there is nothing to discuss. They have expressed them unambiguously. Not only they are banning MonoTouch and Unity3d, it seems they are also banning Titanium Framework. However, after reading this article, i found myself really confused.
I am not familiar with US laws, but is it legal? I mean, aren't they breaking some anti-monopoly laws?
Besides all of this, i can't understand their motivation. Not only will they partly lose a developers interest, they will also lose a developers respect, i think.
As of today, Section 3.3.1 of the Apple iOS Developer Program License has now been reverted to the old text:
3.3.1 Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner
prescribed by Apple and must not use
or call any private APIs.
Apple has released an official statement on the license changes.
This would indicate that it is now permissible to use MonoTouch.
One goal of the Mono team is porting Silverlight to the iPhone by mean of MonoTouch/Moonlight for cross platform development. That's a bit like porting Flash to the iPhone. There is also Monodroid on the way to help us porting applications and, you know, Apple runs amonk every time someone says "Android" :-) IMHO, if Apple is targeting Adobe with the new agreement, they are targeting Novel too. We are probably speculating and there's a NDA but many of us invested a lot of time on this platform so we need to make the situation clear. We cannot wait next summer to discuss this matter. For example, I've been asked by a friend to help his company to prototype a MonoTouch application for a customer. Does the new agreement only affect the App Store distribution? What about in-house distribution?
This google docs spreadsheet has a long list of apps that will be affected by the new agreement. Some noteable ones that have been #1 in the appstore for their category:
Monopoly
Lemonade Tycoon
Skee ball
The settlers
Zombieville
One of the funny inclusions is Toy Story.
oMany apps have been accepted within the last few days written with the help of monotouch and unity, whereas I also am using it as well as obj-c, since the announcement and change in the agreement, so GO FIGURE,...the good ol'WTF comes to mind. It is a bipolar piggybank it seems.
ALSO, the last Unity Game GiantMOTO, which is under HOT NEW GAMES - YESTERDAY, has on its splash screen onLoad in big letters, POWERED BY UNITY. So, all the conjecture, assumptions, etc. is really out the door. It might say all that in the new version, it is certainly NOT enforced. And montouch is the only development platf that FULLY exposes iPhone API and builds COMPLETELY into obj-c using XCode.
From what the license agreement says MonoTouch apps will clearly not be allowed in the AppStore.
The more interesting question is though, against which framework / apps will they enforce it? They will also have to write automated tests to check if the apps were written natively or not, because the people who approve the apps won't have the time / skills to do it for every single app. These apps won't put a sticker there 'Using MonoTouch / Flash'.
Short answer to all that blob in the agreement is YES.
Apple is basically shooting itself in the foot by limiting programs to a few languages:
C - which is not really suited for application development these days, due to it's low-level nature. It's mostly a systems programming language today.
C++ - which makes it harder to shoot your phone, but when it happens, it's with a bazooka. Apart from Qt, there aren't any complete application frameworks to use in C++ (and Qt doesn't support iPhone - yet).
Objective-C - which was invented by Apple and of course will be supported.
JavaScript running in WebKit - basically a web application.
They are deliberately limiting what tools you can use to develop for iPhone, which will almost certainly get them in serious trouble. I'm sure a good sized chunk of the community will just quit iPhone development and migrate to a different platform like Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android or Maemo, which are totally open - you are free to write your application in LOLCODE.
Apart from possibly making iPhone junk for developers, it also gives Adobe a nice kiss:
Apple deliberately blocks Flash from iPad, and now they are also blocking it from iPhone. The nummer is Adobe Flash's CS5 biggest feature is deploying Flash applications to iPhone.
tl;dr: Apple is basically shooting itself in the foot with this move.
It's now months after the flash debacle and it's pretty obvious Monotouch and Unity are doing just fine.
As per "Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited"
Monotouch compiles code down to a native binary, there is no "layer". They're referring to somethign like a .NET runtime, Java JVM or Flash runtime.
Mono applications would normally compile to bytecode which is and would require JIT (just in time) compilation to run them thus a .Net framework or Mono framework is required. However, in the case of iOS and Android, Mono application compile to native code. Therefore, in the eyes of Apple, there is no third layer, Apple will never ban Mono. So you can feel free to develop with MonoTouch and distribute your apps. To ensure you further, there are various of Mono applications (including games and applications) on the AppStore that have been around for a long time.
Is there any MacOS virtual machine that can run on PC?
Is there any source to get it?
What is the best way to develop apps for iphone?
Yes all the developer tools are OSX only.
There are lots of iPhone development books out there go check out amazon and find one with some good reviews and that will get you started.
You might not, in the strictest terms, have to get a Mac to develop for iPhone; but it will be extremely helpful. Apple is relatively talented at squashing efforts directed towards Hackintoshes and virtual machines running OS X.
The shortest answer that will give you the least hassle is: Yes you need a Mac.
But, as far as I know there are a few possibilites, that try to reimplement some Cocoa Frameworks (however they might be Mac OS X only and not iPhone): GNUStep is an example.
But I don't think you get something aquivalent to Xcode (the IDE for iPhone development) this way.
And I think there are some OSX86 Virtual Machines (however these seem to be against Apple's EULA and thus seem to be clearly illegal so I won't point you anywhere to get them).
So to conclude - if you want to develop for iPhone: getting a Mac is the easiest way, even though not cheap.
Hope this helps.
The short answer is - yes.
One possibility for learning some of what you need to know before getting a Mac is GNUstep.
However, GNUstep is mainly useful for learning Objective C, especially since it provides many of the classes that the Cocoa toolkit for iPhone does. This can be run on Windows.
It doesn't, however, support some of the key 2.0 language features that are used 'all the time' in any sample code.
What it will allow you to do is design a UI using their UI designer GORM, and use a near-identical message-based system for implementing a UI, and you could theoretically write Objective C classes in GNUstep and then use them on iPhone.
However, to compile an app for iPhone you basically need to have a Mac, because then you can get the key for signing an app, etc. Since you need to get a Mac at some point, there's really little point in going the much harder route of using GNUstep first and learning a more limited implementation, unless you really need to get started before funds are available.
Despite the new SDK terms that can other programming languages, if you're really wanting to start without a Mac, I'd probably be tempted to look at something like Unity, or perhaps even Appcelerator Titanium, and figuring out all the non-platform-specific logic first on whatever platform (Unity has a free version that can be run on Windows, for example).
I'm not that big a fan of xcode, but is is far and a way the best IDE for Objective C development simply because there's almost nothing else out there.
There are, as always, other options. If you do a web app type project, you can implement the website and test a lot of it in a browser. Furthermore, since Android and iPhone browsers are both WebKit based, you can use the free Android SDK to see what pages look like on a comparable mobile device. And since you can use C and C++ classes as well as Objective C (N.B. not for the GUI, since that needs the Objective C extensions for messaging between objects), another option for making a start without a Mac would be to use Eclipse, QT Creator or some other C/C++ IDE to implement non-GUI classes, so long as you make sure you don't use platform-specific libraries.
But the end of the long answer is still that whatever you do, to compile a proper iPhone app you'll be using xcode and associated tools to finally build it and sign it, and so you need a Mac in the end. If you want to create something targetting the iPhone and won't have access to a Mac, then perhaps you're best off looking at creating an iPhone-adapted website using iui or a similar toolkit to give the site a suitable look and feel.
As a .NET developer, I always dreamed for the possibility to develop with my existing skills (C#) applications for the iPhone.
Both programs require a Mac and the iPhone SDK installed.
Appcelerator Titanium was the first app I tried, and it is based on exposing some iPhone native api to javascript so that they can be called using that language.
Monotouch starts at $399 for being able to deploy on the iPhone and not on the iPhone simulator while Titanium is free.
Monotouch (Monodevelop) has an IDE that is currently missing in Titanium (but you can use any editor like Textmate, Aptana...)
I think both program generate at the end a native precompiled app (also if I am not sure about the size of the final app on the iPhone as I think the .NET framework calls are prelilnked at compilation time in Monotouch).
I am also not sure about the full coverage of all the iPhone API and features.
Titanium has also the advantage to enable Android app development but as a C# developer I still find Monotouch experience more like the Visual Studio one.
Which one would you choose and what are your experiences on Monotouch and Titanium?
Like any which-tool-or-platform-or-language-or-framework-or-whatever question, it should really come down to what you want.
Forget all the if-you-want-to-develop-for-this-platform-then-you-have-to-pay-your-dues advice. If you're interested in learning Objective-C, Xcode, and associated Apple bits, then go for it. I did. It's been fun, but my interest was in developing iPhone apps. Learning a new language, framework, and IDE was just a bonus (I like this stuff). It was also necessary when I started.
I've been working with MonoTouch since it was released, and I love it. I prefer C# to Objective-C, and I like having access to the subset of the .Net (Mono) framework that MonoTouch provides. There are certain things that are simply easier to do with .Net than Cocoa (string manipulation, date manipulation, anything XML, etc.).
I also like not having to deal with reference-counting anymore. I was spoiled by years of not having to keep track of resources at that level. I don't mind having to clean up after myself, but I don't want to have to manually do something that every other modern dev platform I've used does for me automatically. Plus, even for seasoned Objective-C devs, reference-counting isn't a no-brainer. Scroll through OS X's console output sometime to see how many apps crash due to memory-management issues (I know - this can happen with basically any app, but it's far easier to make the mistakes that lead to this situation when you get overworked devs involved whose attention spans have been destroyed by twelve hours of if this and if that and else this and else that and blah blah blah).
I still use Objective-C/Xcode - I've really learned to like Apple's tools. I honestly feel they're awkward and a bit arcane, but still fun.
But... then I also like this:
public string SomeString { get; set; }
To do the same thing with Objective-C (on the iPhone, anyway) requires that you declare a local variable to back the property, write the property declaration, and then use the "synthesize" directive to have the property generated for you (depending on what property attributes you specify, you might have a property that wraps getters and setters that take care of reference-counting for you - overall, this is a time-saver, but the C# Way is the clear winner here).
That's just one example of how MonoTouch can make your life easier, especially if you're used to .Net/Java/Python/other languages that don't require that you get your fingers dirty with memory-mangement (unless you want to).
As far as iPhone-ness is concerned, aside from brining part of .Net to the iPhone world, the MonoTouch namespace maps to CocoaTouch, so if you're confused about, say, the MonoTouch UIViewController, you can just hop over to Apple's docs on the UIViewController. MonoTouch .Net-izes CocoaTouch, but it's close enough that you're unlikely to hit a wall (that wouldn't have also hit if you were using Xcode/Objective-C). It's slick.
Titanium is different. Since they're trying (trying) to create an abstraction layer that lets you write the same app for multiple platforms, you're going to deal with the usual drawbacks: Totally different APIs, loss of flexibility (the same could be said of MonoTouch, but not remotely to the same degree), and basically having to learn a whole new platform (which is what you're trying to avoid by getting around Xcode/Objective-C/CocoaTouch, right?).
I also hate JavaScript, so I'm going to be biased against Titanium. But even if that weren't the case - even if I could use a language I do like - the APIs don't tickle my fancy. Or my anything.
Regardless of the dev tools you choose, you will end up having to learn something about CocoaTouch. Whether it's Xcode/Objective-C, MonoTouch, or Titanium, something is going to break or go all wonky on you, and you're eventually going to have to refer to CocoaTouch documentation.
If I were giving a talk on iPhone development (which I have, and which I will be doing again), and if I were to discuss alternatives to Apple's dev tools (which I will), I would still strongly encourage devs to at least work through a few basic iPhone apps using the native tools. It's going to make you a better developer for the platform - period. And you can use this beginning phase to determine if you even want to use anything other than the free Apple-supplied bits. You might not. I've been using MonoTouch because it pleases me - not because it's necessary.
So, to summarize a few basic criteria:
Preference (language/frameworks)
Devices (do you care about non-iPhone platforms or think you might someday?)
Comfort (if you like and know C# MUCH better than Objective-C, there's no reason not to go with MonoTouch)
And don't listen to the naysayers unless they've actually used the tech they're talking about. For example, I've read about Titanium, but I'm not experienced with it - I just know that I don't want anything to do with it on account of my preferences. That doesn't make it "bad" - just something I don't want in my life.
The Objective-C crowd can be impressively zealous. While there are plenty of open-minded devs in it, there are so, so, so many who think Objective-C and Cocoa and blah blah blah are THE last dev tools devkind will ever need.
Ignore them.
If you're worried about support, here's some stuff to consider:
Apple is likely to remain current, as they're the ones making this junk.
MonoTouch is likely to remain current - the Mono peeps have done an amazing job keep up with Microsoft, and I see no reason why they won't do the same with Apple. I'm blown away by what they do. And despite MonoTouch having been released, like, five minutes ago, they already have an update out for iPhone 3.1 stuff. They're serious about this, and I think they're magic. They're the Keebler Elves of the dev world. They sit in their secret layers and crank out stuff everybody (ok - not everybody) likes, but that nobody else would even attempt to do.
Titanium is either going to become an awkward unified API for writing apps for multiple platforms that is entirely its own thing, or it's going to become more and more splintered as the capabilities of different platforms diverge. Yeah, that's a bunch of typical armchair nerdly future-gazing... I should have prefaced this bullet item with "It's my opinion that..." If only there were a way to go back and change it.
Go with what you like. MonoTouch is a "safe" alternative to Apple's stuff. I'm afraid Titanium is going to go down the same old oops-this-super-high-level-platform-abstraction-layer-stuff-doesn't-really-work road that so many other technologies have. But if you're doing something simple, there's no harm in giving it a shot, especially considering that it's free during the beta period.
These are fun and interesting ways you can build iPhone apps. But, for truly rapid native iPhone development, your best bet is the free iPhone SDK and Xcode.
To be honest, the hardest things to learn are the capabilities of the frameworks themselves, NOT the language syntax. But that is an issue you have to tackle either way as these IDEs/Languages still require you to grasp some of the conventions of Cocoa (and Cocoa Touch).
I don't say this as a Cocoa / Objective-C snob, but if you know C (which as a C# dev you do) there really isn't any barrier to entry.
In addition, you will have access to tons of tutorials and sample code that just won't be available for these fledgling translators/IDEs/languages.
Learning another programming language is rarely a bad thing, and as an experienced programmer, your time investment won't be as large as you think.
I've created an open source project http://propertycross.com that helps developers select a cross-platform mobile framework by showing the same application implemented with Sencha, Titanium, Xamarin and more. This project allows you to easily compare a wide range of frameworks in terms of end-user experience, code, IDE, developer experience etc ...
I kinda like the idea of providing means to quickly get a grip on iPhone dev with techno people already know.
I personnaly, as a Java developer, use iSPectrum (http://www.flexycore.com). It also come with an IDE, debugger and stuff, which make it really convenient to develop with because it benefits of all the power of Eclipse Java plugin.
Being based on Java, this also allows to easily reuse already existing code from other java apps, which can be really handy providing that Java is present on almost all platforms (desktop & mobile alike) except iPhone.
Plus it's free for open source projects.
I'd rather consider these kind of solutions, because I don't like the idea of coming back to developing in emacs :) .
I know this is an old topic, but in the interest of staying current, it looks like MonoTouch and other cross-platform frameworks are going to be banned in SDK 4.0. Your only "safe" bet for writing iPhone apps is to use XCode and Objective-C, at least for the time being.
If you're C# programmer why you shouldn't invest some times to learn Objective C. Honestly speaking, it will not take much time from you. But you feels good to work in a new platform with new language. Learning new things all time fascinates me.
There are numerous ways to get on the device. Apple has stated in the SDK license that the only approved way to get on the device is via C, C++, ObjectiveC, and Javascript.
It appears at this point in time that apps built on MonoTouch and Appcelerator Titanium are being accepted into the App Store. Thanks to the license change, there is much fear, uncertainty and doubt on this subject. Apple has scared everyone not doing ObjectiveC.
I would suggest that you do whatever makes the most sense for you as a developer. If you know C# and .NET, you should go with MonoTouch. If you know ObjectiveC or the Mac platform, ObjectiveC is probably the way to go. If you know X and it's on the iPhone, well, X is where I would suggest looking first.
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 ^^