iPhone on Microsoft and C++

The answer, currently, is no: the only way to make an app for the iPhone is to bite the bullet and use (and learn) Objective-C, at least if you want to be able to submit and sell apps on the appstore.

That said, the resources to learn Obj-C are not so bad. Like any other language, it just takes time and patience.

EDIT: I should add this requires Snow Leopard (the newest OS X) to run the new version of the SDK.

Dragonfire is pretty nice, but it's pretty early in the SDK's lifetime, so naturally there are certain features that are missing. Their team is very supportive though, and responds very promptly. They often put new features based in based on what the community wants.

Another good option to check out would be Airplay SDK perhaps.

You can make a quality app and you can publish it on the appstore, but your tools won't be nearly as good if as if you were using Xcode(?). I'd say these SDK's are for people who don't have access to a Mac and who don't want to learn objective C.


EDIT: Also to the above poster, apps made with DragonFire in C++ CAN be posted on the Appstore.

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Original post by Kalnos EDIT: Also to the above poster, apps made with DragonFire in C++ CAN be posted on the Appstore.

Really? I had thought Apple was up at arms against that (as they're wont to do); that's a pleasant surprise.

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Original post by Kalnos Dragonfire is pretty nice, but it's pretty early in the SDK's lifetime, so naturally there are certain features that are missing. Their team is very supportive though, and responds very promptly. They often put new features based in based on what the community wants. Another good option to check out would be Airplay SDK perhaps. You can make a quality app and you can publish it on the appstore, but your tools won't be nearly as good if as if you were using Xcode(?). I'd say these SDK's are for people who don't have access to a Mac and who don't want to learn objective C. EDIT: Also to the above poster, apps made with DragonFire in C++ CAN be posted on the Appstore.

Thanks for the info.

Would you or anyone else know of open source iphone sdks for those of us that can't currently afford a MAC?

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Would you or anyone else know of open source iphone sdks for those of us that can't currently afford a MAC?

Sorry if you misunderstood. Dragonfire IS for people who can't afford a Mac, as their build process involves building your application on their Mac for you and then letting you do as you please with the client, whether that's letting them publish it for you or you creating your own dev account and publishing it yourself :).

I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't mind the use of C++/C on the iphone, it's flash that they're against. You could also use Unity and C# to publish a game onto the iphone. It isn't the prettiest path, but a path is a path.

To use Unity on iPhone you need to have the Unity for iPhone add-on for Unity Pro, and a proper Mac setup with a existing paid iPhone developer license. Unity isn't an alternate path, because you have to be on the main path to begin with. :)

You could always go with Windows Phone 7 if you don't want to make the Mac jump. It has full XNA support now.

Airplay SDK...it's very good

Ok Koowl :)

Just another little question, do you think that this may affect the quality of the final product? Or it's the same? (depending if it's developed on Apple's SDK and Dragonfire/Airplay SDK)

Gracias :D
Niko

That is entirely up to the developer (you).

Ok thanks, I wasn't sure if the language could change something on the product

Niko :)

While it's entirely possible to do the bulk of your coding in C++, anything touching Apples APIs is in ObjC; you'll end up doing quite a lot of ObjC coding to get proper iphone UIs working, accessing OpenFeint/Game Center, etc.

Allan

True, didn't thought about that
I probably wouldn't need to learn the whole language for this, I believe this is a pretty small part so it shouldn't be too much a pain

Thanks
Niko

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Original post by Kalnos Sorry if you misunderstood. Dragonfire IS for people who can't afford a Mac, as their build process involves building your application on their Mac for you and then letting you do as you please with the client, whether that's letting them publish it for you or you creating your own dev account and publishing it yourself :).

So, did I misunderstand this?

Is it the case that you write code for the iPhone on the PC with these packages you all list, and can run them in a (reverse engineered) simulator...but when you want to publish to the App Store you have to go through the publisher of your SDK and have them build it for you? That's odd, no? It also puts a lot of trust on that company which is now a middle man. Do they charge you for this service?

If that's the case, then what I said is true, partially. You still need a Mac with OS X and XCode *somewhere* between you and the app store. Personally, I recommend it be yours, as middle men can be troublesome. What if this SDK company goes under and with it their publishing of your software? Mac is less likely to go under than a company that counts on people wanting to develop for mac on the PC, no?

If you do go this route, seriously consider using the proceeds from your first published game to buy a Mac for further iPhone/iPad dev.

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..who don't want to learn objective C.

Just to be nitpicky, because I read this so frequently..
Learning Objective C seems to be a small step, from what I've seen of the language. It really seems like a non-issue to me, although we all have our coding preferences.
A much bigger issue is porting your perfectly good codebase into another language.
No one's going to do it for you, and it's going to cost you time/money. For broke people, it doesn't make sense, especially when there is a larger market out there for other devices that cost much less to own and develop on.

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Original post by serratemplar Quote: Original post by Kalnos Sorry if you misunderstood. Dragonfire IS for people who can't afford a Mac, as their build process involves building your application on their Mac for you and then letting you do as you please with the client, whether that's letting them publish it for you or you creating your own dev account and publishing it yourself :). So, did I misunderstand this? Is it the case that you write code for the iPhone on the PC with these packages you all list, and can run them in a (reverse engineered) simulator...but when you want to publish to the App Store you have to go through the publisher of your SDK and have them build it for you? That's odd, no? It also puts a lot of trust on that company which is now a middle man. Do they charge you for this service? If that's the case, then what I said is true, partially. You still need a Mac with OS X and XCode *somewhere* between you and the app store. Personally, I recommend it be yours, as middle men can be troublesome. What if this SDK company goes under and with it their publishing of your software? Mac is less likely to go under than a company that counts on people wanting to develop for mac on the PC, no? If you do go this route, seriously consider using the proceeds from your first published game to buy a Mac for further iPhone/iPad dev.

This is how it works, and I agree with everything you said completely. Also, I think learning Objective C would be great, but some people really dislike learning new languages for whatever reason (even if it takes no time at all).

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Original post by Kalnos Quote: Original post by serratemplar Quote: Original post by Kalnos Sorry if you misunderstood. Dragonfire IS for people who can't afford a Mac, as their build process involves building your application on their Mac for you and then letting you do as you please with the client, whether that's letting them publish it for you or you creating your own dev account and publishing it yourself :). So, did I misunderstand this? Is it the case that you write code for the iPhone on the PC with these packages you all list, and can run them in a (reverse engineered) simulator...but when you want to publish to the App Store you have to go through the publisher of your SDK and have them build it for you? That's odd, no? It also puts a lot of trust on that company which is now a middle man. Do they charge you for this service? If that's the case, then what I said is true, partially. You still need a Mac with OS X and XCode *somewhere* between you and the app store. Personally, I recommend it be yours, as middle men can be troublesome. What if this SDK company goes under and with it their publishing of your software? Mac is less likely to go under than a company that counts on people wanting to develop for mac on the PC, no? If you do go this route, seriously consider using the proceeds from your first published game to buy a Mac for further iPhone/iPad dev. This is how it works, and I agree with everything you said completely. Also, I think learning Objective C would be great, but some people really dislike learning new languages for whatever reason (even if it takes no time at all).

I don't mind learning Objective-C, it's just that I'm already in the process of learning C++ (still noob)and I found out it could be possible to code on iPhone with C++
Is it possible to code for iPhone on a Windows with ObjC?

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Original post by Bulbuzor Is it possible to code for iPhone on a Windows with ObjC?

No. Objective C is just a language. The SDK and libraries are provided only for Apple's own hardware and programming tools.

You need Mac hardware, and to be a registered iPhone developer, per the EULA.

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Original post by Daaark Quote: Original post by Bulbuzor Is it possible to code for iPhone on a Windows with ObjC? No. Objective C is just a language. The SDK and libraries are provided only for Apple's own hardware and programming tools. You need Mac hardware, and to be a registered iPhone developer, per the EULA.

Okay this is what I was thinking

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Original post by Bulbuzor Is it possible to code for iPhone on a Windows with ObjC?

You can code in Objective-C in Windows, but you won't have access to the Cocoa Touch (iPhone) library. You need an actual Mac, download the iPhone SDK (which will integrate nicely with Xcode). You can then start developing for iPhone. If you want to test it on an actual device, you need to be a registered developer by paying $99 to Apple.

Yeah, annoying.