iOS iPhone SDK on Windows?

[dougdawson]

If you're a worthy developer, you shouldn't have any problem gaining access to a Mac. If not, why would Apple want to invest resource on you?

That reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a lawyer friend of mine. He claimed that all the people begging on the street corners were there because they were addicted to drugs, and instead of throwing them nickel bags, we should be throwing them those little cheese-and-cracker packets, and he kept a special stash of them under his seat just for that purpose.

Doug

 

[Jenson.Chew]

Well, I seemed to understand that Apple just want to make more developers develop for Mac and iPhone/iPod with the popularity of their iPhone/iPod Touch, it tends to increase the sales of Mac machines and increase their profits.

So I would still think that it's more feasible to get a Mac, and since Mac now run on Intel x86 processor, you could dual boot with Windows if you still want to develop on Windows (though I'm not sure whether the experience would be the same for windows developments on Mac).

If you really don't wanna get a Mac for iPhone development, I think, instead of Android, I would suggest you to develop for WebOS from Palm (if you heard about Palm Pre), and make use of their Mojo SDK and toolkits.

I think it would be equally fun if not more fun than iPhone development. I'm still waiting for their SDK & Toolkits' public release. Stay tune! If you get a Mac, then I think you would be able to develop for Windows Mobile, Android, WebOS, and iPhone/iPod Touch, that's a pretty good deal for mobile developers, I suppose.

Tell me if I'm wrong, I want somemore who know better to share, then maybe all of us could get a better picture ;-)

 

[Phil A.]

They are also using the popularity of coding for the App store to trick more developers into knowing how to code for Mac OS X.

QFT
I've been a mac user for 7 years but was never really interested in developing software for OS X. However, since developing on the iPhone, I've been thinking that maybe I ought to take a look at OS X development too...

 

[jnic]

I must award this with a ROFL. But more seriously, i also wish to make iphone apps for my iPod Touch but only have windows machines at my disposal.

Could it run on a hackintosh or is there any other emulator like interface that I can run it on.

If you've really only PCs at your disposal, then yes, development on a hackintosh is perfectly possible.

 

[Jenson.Chew]

Btw, did you notice that there are new range of product with more affordable pricing on Apple Store now? i think it's getting very competitive in pricing and affordable for people to start using Mac.

Link for US Apple Store: http://store.apple.com/us

In fact, i think this apply to Apple Store worldwide.

Kudos for Apple, wise move!

 

[Darkroom]

it's called java and is goddamn slow because it runs cross-platform ^^ that's the price you gotta pay for those things.

if you knew how apps work you'd knew that it's not that simple to "generate apps that work perfect on windows and on macs". I don't say it's impossible, but anyway, if you want to do it, use java.

java chews. i'm hearing that Adobe Air is strong. let's see if it really takes off.

 

[justfred]

They are also using the popularity of coding for the App store to trick more developers into knowing how to code for Mac OS X.

Heh... yeah. I used to consider myself a windows programmer and/or web programmer...

now I'm learning Cocoa and I am a hop, skip, and a jump away from being a mac programmer as well. Amazing how that happened.

Apple makes good decisions as a hardware company. Software is great when it is cross-platform, but not when your revenue comes from selling devices that directly compete with the platform you're catering to.

 

[mskembo]

Get over yourselves

I Googles iPhone SDK Windows to see if it was available, and was really shocked to come accross this thread. Some of the posters here represent the worst components of the Mac cult. I'm a Network Security Engineer, with 13 years of industry experience, and am sick of the stupidity happening in the Mac culture.

First, OS X is a great OS, but so is Vista (and 7 is shaping up to be a killer app). You are into a Coke and Pepsi argument that will never end. Macs do get viruses, they do crash, and they are not fundimentaly better than a PC. Additionally the problems with a Windows is typically not OS related, but stems from the fact that Windows is designed to support a larger hardware base than OS X. If Microsoft only allowed their OS to be run on a hardware platform they specified then it would be just as stable, and cost just as much as a Mac. However if they did that then they wouldn't hold the vast majority of the market like they do.

Realize when you are spewing your hatefull dogma that people without a dog in the fight are turned off by it. Literally it makes me embarassed to have just purchased an iPhone 3G S...

Mike Skembo
yamahadrummer.blogspot.com

 

[dejo]

If Microsoft only allowed their OS to be run on a hardware platform they specified then it would be just as stable, and cost just as much as a Mac.

Except Microsoft doesn't sell hardware and their OSes already cost more then Mac OS X.

As for the rest of your post, I think the amount of perceived fanboyism expressed in this thread is much lower than I've seen in other threads. Are there specific comments that you are taking objection too? If so, quote them and supply some basis for your disagreement. Otherwise, it just starts to look like the opposite of Apple-fanboysim: Apple-hate.

I think it's not that hard to conclude that Apple has not ported the iPhone SDK or Xcode to Windows for two reasons: 1) it would be a lot of work (and might not even be successful) and 2) it would remove another good reason to buy Apple hardware. Of course, there may be even more reasons that only Apple internally is aware of.

 

[Luke Redpath]

I Googles iPhone SDK Windows to see if it was available, and was really shocked to come accross this thread. Some of the posters here represent the worst components of the Mac cult. I'm a Network Security Engineer, with 13 years of industry experience, and am sick of the stupidity happening in the Mac culture.

First, OS X is a great OS, but so is Vista (and 7 is shaping up to be a killer app). You are into a Coke and Pepsi argument that will never end. Macs do get viruses, they do crash, and they are not fundimentaly better than a PC. Additionally the problems with a Windows is typically not OS related, but stems from the fact that Windows is designed to support a larger hardware base than OS X. If Microsoft only allowed their OS to be run on a hardware platform they specified then it would be just as stable, and cost just as much as a Mac. However if they did that then they wouldn't hold the vast majority of the market like they do.

Realize when you are spewing your hatefull dogma that people without a dog in the fight are turned off by it. Literally it makes me embarassed to have just purchased an iPhone 3G S...

Mike Skembo
yamahadrummer.blogspot.com

Now who's trolling?

 

[kainjow]

I Googles iPhone SDK Windows

You're not the only one. This thread currently has 71k+ views, making it the most viewed thread in the iPhone Programming forum

 

[RobertD63]

I love the little plug of his website haha. Anyways.

Like people have said, the SDK relies on stuff only coming from OSX that isn't possible on windoze like all the frameworks and API's and this would call for a complete rewrite of the SDK. Not worth Apples time for this little market. They would end up losing so much more money here. Think about it guys, Apple gets 30% of the app store cut. Thats not much, most if not all goes to hosting fees. So with spending all this money to rewrite the SDK and hiring new people etc would end up costing apple so much money they aren't even looking at it to joke around with the idea.

Ill put it down right now, its never going to happen. Sorry

 

[EssentialParado]

You might be interested to read what's happening here:- http://sio2interactive.forumotion.n...t-pc-or-mac-compilable-build-t710-15.htm#4000

^ this will probably end up being more useful for windows 3d modelers.

On another note, I'd never recommend developing on a hackintosh or through virtualization. I don't believe any serious developer would build on completely non-native hardware. I know some people don't have access to a Mac, but so long as you're prepared to make the final build and debugging on a Mac, you can probably get away with it.

 

[kainjow]

Porting Xcode and all the various tools over to Windows I'm sure is technically possible. Remember, this is Apple. They had OS X running on x86 from the beginning. They ported iTunes to Windows (which is basically the majority of the Carbon framework). QuickTime and WebKit have been cross-platform for years. They ported Safari, which I'm guessing means they have some form of Cocoa for Windows internally (YellowBox?).

But it doesn't make sense in terms of business. Think of how many of those 50,000 apps come from developers who are new to the Mac. I'm guessing a large percent. That's a lot of Mac minis and MacBooks. Apple wants more Mac/iPhone software so they can sell more hardware.

Back when I was writing iPod apps (pre-touch) I had customers tell me they sold their Palms and bought an iPod and my software. Now that was only a handful but I bet it happens on a larger scale with other companies.

 

[CylonGlitch]

For those who are looking to develop for the Mac / iPhone, getting the low end MacBook, adding in a 500gb HD ($100 Seagate), and 4GB of RAM ($75) will set you back about $1200. It isn't a bad machine, it's what I'm on right now, and what I develop on.

I also recommend picking up VMWare Fusion for the Mac that will allow you to install Windows and run it natively inside of OS-X. This is an added benefit of being able to backup your windows system using Time Machine, and having different instantiations of Windows running. Ever want to keep a good virgin install of Windows? Easy with Fusion, just install Windows, then copy the image. Now you have TWO installs, one you keep clean and the other you can test on. Yes, both can be running at the same time.

Need Ubuntu, or Red Hat, easily installed with Fusion.

Of course VMWare has this on the PC side as well, but it isn't as nice. VMPlayer can only play images that were made with VMWorkstation (expensive) or downloaded from their website. VMPlayer on the PC can play images made with Fusion! If you need a way to get yourself a Mac, tell your boss that it's the easiest and cheapest way to create your own images for the PC's.

I was a PC fan for so many years but switched over to Macs a few years ago. Glad I did. But I still have to use XP for FPGA development; and that's where Fusion works GREAT!

 

[dejo]

A 500GB HD and 4GB of RAM are not required to develop for Mac / iPhone; neither is Windows. A base-level Macbook or even Mac mini are more than sufficient to get started.

 

[dangly]

It is possible...

I researched this and performed many successful steps as well.

You have to install mac osx onto the windows machine to use the SDK on windows.

I can be done with either a virtual machine or a converting the windows machine.

It all depends on the processor. If you have Intel is should be quite hard but not to hard to install it. Not gonna lie but you may need to get some "third party files" from other sources to make it work. But i don't think thats legal so i take no responsibility for it.

If you have AMD processor. You will have to change the kernel. Very difficult so only do it if you know what your doing.

I got to the point of installing the mac osx [legit] onto a virtual machine. Was installing but then there were problems communicating with the harddrive. Spent alot of time trying and i couldnt really be bothered to fix it so i stopped. I believe the kernels are the problems.

Once osx is up. It should be simple to install and use the SDK.

Reasons why its not on Windows -

SDK uses Mac OSX core files

Windows cant read .dmg files which are essential(i think its .dmg but dont shout at me for that)

Profit...

 

[CylonGlitch]

A 500GB HD and 4GB of RAM are not required to develop for Mac / iPhone; neither is Windows. A base-level Macbook or even Mac mini are more than sufficient to get started.

Of course that isn't true if you just want to develop for the Mac, but he was talking about having a windows system as well because that is what they are mostly using at their location. Thus you need more memory if you're trying to run a virtualized windows session. The hard drive space is not necessary but the price difference doesn't really warrant much less. The reason for the larger drive, and this is mostly for Windows locations, is that you can then have a good sized Windows Bootcamp partition (60 to 100gb) and then you can have multiple instances of the Windows virtual drive images for different configurations. It gets eaten up quickly. I had a 120gb in my MacBook, and that was barely enough for all the different installs. Going to 320 was going to cost me $99; going to 500gb cost me $109 --- no reason not to go to 500gb.

 

[Agnes Rexana]

i have windows vista ultimate and i would like to be able to download the iPhone app designing program from the apple website. If apple is going to make it available to windows via an update or something i would like to know. but if they aren't planning on doing that then i need some instructions on how to get it onto my computer.

 

[munkees]

i have windows vista ultimate and i would like to be able to download the iPhone app designing program from the apple website. If apple is going to make it available to windows via an update or something i would like to know. but if they aren't planning on doing that then i need some instructions on how to get it onto my computer.

I don't think it will every be under windows, you should look into dual booking you PC with Mac OS X, other than that you will need a mac.

 

[theinhibitor]

Three things:
You CAN get the iPhone sdk for windows. There is guy who cracked the core files as well as the iPhone simulator. However, you have to "build" the files yourself. If you have no idea what "building" is in the SDK world then you shouldnt even be trying to code.

Why in world would you need 500gb hd and 4gb ram??? LOL who said that? First of all its processing speed that's important in programming NOT ram. Also, you developing prob 1mb apps for a phone that has a 166mhz processor. Do the math please. If your app is freezing up your comp it wont even run on the iPhone.

There are many ways to get your programs running on a iphone without the SDK. I primarily work in Java and C and have been able to get my little programs running no problem. Yes, you can even get Java to run on the iPhone. I would suggest talking about this at a mac developer forum, not here.

One last thing...
I cant believe people still argue about Mac and PC. Neither is better however some are better for some things. From a developmental side PC's are INARGUABLY better. Ever single high end game or piece of software (think gaming engines or Mathematica and the like) is made for PC. Macs r a headache for developers. Because most of the software is built for PC based graphics pipelining then Macs usually have sever problems rendering graphics. For a designers point of view Macs r better. They boot faster and have nice little additions that speed up the process (think all Adobe products). They also r easy to use with additional hardware (like cameras and the like).

 

[rdowty]

I wish Microsoft would make Visual Studio and SQL Server Manager for Mac. Then I wouldn't have to run Fusion all day long.

 

[dejo]

One last thing...
I cant believe people still argue about Mac and PC. Neither is better however some are better for some things. From a developmental side PC's are INARGUABLY better. Ever single high end game or piece of software (think gaming engines or Mathematica and the like) is made for PC. Macs r a headache for developers. Because most of the software is built for PC based graphics pipelining then Macs usually have sever problems rendering graphics. For a designers point of view Macs r better. They boot faster and have nice little additions that speed up the process (think all Adobe products). They also r easy to use with additional hardware (like cameras and the like).

"Neither is better." You should have left it at that. There's a lot more to software development than graphics pipelines. And, um, Mathematica runs on OS X and Linux as well. And, I believe, it's always been fairly cross-platform friendly. A large amount of modern software development can be done on a variety of platforms, sometimes even targeting other platforms. To say that "PC's are INARGUABLY better" just sounds uniformed.

 

[GranoblasticMan]

Not a chance. Apple's SDK depends on stuff (Obj-C, Cocoa, OS X libs & Keychain) that's not in Windows. And Apple is not going to waste much of their time porting all that important code to Windows.

They are also using the popularity of coding for the App store to trick more developers into knowing how to code for Mac OS X.

If you not interested in getting a Mac, go develop for Android.

Sweet, I will. And I'm sure plenty of other developers, when given the choice between "Buy our computer to develop for our product" or "Develop an application on the computer you already use," they will choose the latter.

 

[kainjow]

Sweet, I will. And I'm sure plenty of other developers, when given the choice between "Buy our computer to develop for our product" or "Develop an application on the computer you already use," they will choose the latter.

Doesn't really seem to be the case at this point with the success of the App Store and the number of new Cocoa developers...