iPhone Development
Author
So...I have this great idea for an iPhone app (link below), but I wonder how many people there really are out there that do iPhone development. Someone told me that their fairly certain that the language used to develop these apps is similar to C++. Is this true?
I also was wondering if anyone here has the SDK. Is it easy to use? I mean...the app I'm planning on making seems like it would be very easy to do. No graphics...just menus. Just wondering what everyone's experience has been like.
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=516023
The language, Objective-C, is similar to C++. It supports OOP, but it's more of a dynamic typed language (id) type. It's a strict superset of C, but in order to use any iphone development libraries, you pretty much have to use Objective-C and Cocoa. Objective-C calling convention is a bit different. Instead of calling functions, you send messages to objects.
Instead of
foo obj;
obj.add(2, 4);
you do
foo *obj = [[foo alloc] init];
[obj add: 2 to: 4];
It's a real... different way of doing things.
Instead of
foo obj;
obj.add(2, 4);
you do
foo *obj = [[foo alloc] init];
[obj add: 2 to: 4];
It's a real... different way of doing things.
Well, that's not the entire story. Objective-C does support an alternate "." syntax for message passing that at least looks more like what you'd expect to see in C or C++. You can also use "Objective-C++" which combines C++ (or some subset thereof) with the message-passing syntax and other bits that were added to C to make Objective-C. Conceptually, Objective-C is fairly close to C++ and in many ways appears to be closer to the way in which academics discuss OOP (dispite it's popularity, C++ is not the model for OOP programming languages). Syntactically, it looks a bit scary, and certainly different than what most of us are used to -- but like learning any new language, comfort will come when you understand it enough to map its constructs back to what you're more familiar with, and understanding will come when you learn to leverage the rest of its advantages intelligently.
It supports full C99 C++ and Obj-C. You can easily isolate the low-level iPhone API stuff (obj-c) into it's own area, and hook into your C++ engine code. It's really not too bad to get up and running, the obj-c stuff just takes some getting used to.
Keep in mind, in order to the get official SDK, you must be approved by Apple (for $99, non-refundable). You will need to submit proof of incorporation, too. Usually takes a few months to process your application as well.
Keep in mind, in order to the get official SDK, you must be approved by Apple (for $99, non-refundable). You will need to submit proof of incorporation, too. Usually takes a few months to process your application as well.
The other big hurdle you may potentially run into is that you need a mac OSX computer to set up the official iPhone toolchain (i.e. you cannot develop iPhone apps on a windows PC without a retarded and completely unsupported jumble of hoops)
The closest you can generally get on windows is something like this:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/07/ibm-extends-iphone-development-to-windowslinux-programmers/
Basically, you can do it but your apps will only run on a jailbroken iPhone and cannot be placed in the iPhone app store
-me
The closest you can generally get on windows is something like this:
http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/07/ibm-extends-iphone-development-to-windowslinux-programmers/
Basically, you can do it but your apps will only run on a jailbroken iPhone and cannot be placed in the iPhone app store
-me
Quote:Original post by ThrustGoblinActually, you only need to submit proof of incorporation if you register as a corporate developer. If you register as an independent developer, you don't need to submit anything, and the approval process takes about 10 minutes.
Keep in mind, in order to the get official SDK, you must be approved by Apple (for $99, non-refundable). You will need to submit proof of incorporation, too. Usually takes a few months to process your application as well.
Quote:Original post by Mr3dPHDI have a Mac, and an iPhone developer certificate, so if anyone wants to partner on a similar venture...
Yeah...I found out about the Mac OS issue the hard way. My solution was to work with another developer who already has a Mac and a key, so the app will be published under his name. It was either that, or spend the cash on a new computer. Which wasn't going to happen.
[Edited by - swiftcoder on December 9, 2008 8:15:05 PM]
Author
Yeah...I found out about the Mac OS issue the hard way. My solution was to work with another developer who already has a Mac and a key, so the app will be published under his name. It was either that, or spend the cash on a new computer. Which wasn't going to happen.
Quote:Original post by swiftcoder
If you register as an independent developer, you don't need to submit anything, and the approval process takes about 10 minutes.
I applied iPhone developer program (99$ version) three weeks ago and still nothing. Maybe because I am in Spain, I don't know. Any idea?
Thanks.
I applied online and for some reason my application was misprocessed by the website. After searching online, it seems this is a common occurence with Apples site. So I called their tech support directly ( as suggested by the other people who had this happened ) and recived the admitance emial the next day. I did wait 3 weeks as well, before calling. I strongly suggest you call their tech support.
Good Luck!
-ddn
Good Luck!
-ddn
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