iPhone Programming in Mac OS X runnning not in a Mac Computer

Question

Good day.

This is not really a programming question, but i think there is people here that are the ideal for the question i have to ask.

I see all day long question about "programming for iphone", and now i'm curious, and i want to try some too.

For that i need a Mac OS X, no question about it.. But i have a problem i don't have a Mac Computer.

I have a Intel Dual-Core PC, running XP. Snow Leopard its for Intel, but for Intel Mac computers, right?.

If i manage to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard in my Notebook.

Do you think i can still install and do programming for Iphone, as well in a Mac Computer?

There will be any problems in the programming or debugging?

And there is another thing.. I don't have a iphone. That will may be a problem right?

Thanks for the help once again.

Answer 1

Yes, as long as you got it installed correctly and it worked well with your hardware (drivers working correctly and hardware properly identified). http://osx86.thefreesuite.com/ If you are doing iPhone development, you need to pay special attention to making sure your USB drivers are working well to. This and other driver/hardware issues may give a headache trying to get things to not only work, but work well and properly.

That is not the easiest task though and can be a real pain in the anatomy. A used cheap intel mac is the way to go to get started. (mini, imac). Just make sure it is an intel mac.

If you dont have an iphone, then you would just use the simulator for all your testing. This is not ideal though as you could not test your app properly. You also cannot use all iphone features in the simulator. It can only simulate so much.

• For more info on limitations of simulator. http://trailsinthesand.com/iphone-sdk-simulator-limitations/

• Here is a discussion on why the mini is a good choice: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1107380/will-a-mac-mini-suffice-for-an-iphone-development-machine/1107405#1107405

• Discussion on developing with Ipod Touch vs. Iphone for the Iphone: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1128245/ipod-touch-compared-to-iphone-as-development-platform-for-iphone-apps/1128275#1128275

• And a question over at serverfault about os x install on pc: http://serverfault.com/questions/38496/mac-os-x-install-on-pc-hard-drive/38498#38498

Answer 2

Try Hackint0sh VM-ware torrents, I haven't had any luck so I bought a iMac instead but I hear that this is an option.

Answer 3

This isn't the place, but providing you get OSX running then:

1. You need stable USB support for your MB
2. You might need to mix-up OSX and Darwin/Mach to get full hardware support
3. The iPhone emulator may well include hardware-checking code
4. It is cheaper to buy a second hand mac-mini

Answer 4

For first testings and learning the language and the concepts this should work. Maybe you are even able to install mac os into a vmware or virtualbox virtualmachine don't know which program applies for your operating system. You should be able to run Xcode and the Simulator and learn all the basics.

But if you want to develop serious Iphone apps I think you need an Iphone because getting a feeling for performance, User Interaction with the touch screen and so on can only be tested on the device itself.

And by the way I think this the perfectly right place for this question.

Answer 5

Agreed with most of the above points.

Mac mini's have gotten cheaper as of late especially if you buy a used one. Think of it this way if you buy a mac mini your first goal as an app developer is to release a paid app that will pay for your mac mini. Making money on the app store is NOT rocket science. It just takes a decent product and some common sense.

Another solution instead of getting an iPhone is to get an iPod touch. It will gives you 80% of the iPhone functionality for development testing and you won't have to sign up for the monthly plan.

FYI if you want to build for Blackberry up until recently it was hard to do without Windows so its not as if Apple is the only one that forces you into certain hardware/software combos to build for their platform. If you want to build for Windows you need to run Windows.

Answer 6

The questions already been answered but I want to add this to the overall topic.

I specifically bought a Mac to develop iPhone applications. What this single task opened up is far beyond what I was expecting. To list a few things:

• I'm extremely impressed with the hardware. No hardware vendor competes with Mac's hardware from what I can tell.
• The OS is sweet. I can't list all of the details but the virtual desktops alone is wonderful. Check out the Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X
• I run Windows Vista from VirtualBox and it works great.
• Objective-C -- A very nice programming language; I which I could use it more on windows.

All in all, I can literally get rid of all of my non-apple hardware and run Mac OS X and Vista from the Mac hardware and everything would be great.

My point is, the Mac is worth the price.

Buying a $999 Mac may not be such a bad idea...

And please note, running the Mac OS on a non apple computer is technically a license violation. I don't agree it should be, but it technically is.

UPDATE: You said that you want to see how it is done. You don't need a Mac (or the OS) assuming that you don't want to compile and run programs. Visit the iPhone Developer page at apple. You can get some free samples just by doing the basic free registration (don't sign up for the paid one).

From there, you should be able to download a few samples and look though the source code. You won't be able to view Interface Builder files, but this would at least give you some idea of the Objective-C code.

You can further gather more information online by going to websites like:

• iPhone Development Blog
• iPhone Development
• iPhone Development Bits

Answer 7

There's a commercial environment which allows to develop iPhone applications directly from a Windows machine. You might want to give it a look instead of going through the huge and illegal hassle of setting up a hacked version of OS X on your PC.

http://www.dragonfiresdk.com/index.htm

It was released recently and they claim that some applications produced with it have already been approved for release in the App Store.

From http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/06/15/dragonfire-sdk :

Their pitch: write iPhone apps using C and C++ on Windows, using Visual Studio, using Zimusoft’s SDK and their own iPhone Simulator. Then you upload your project to Zimusoft’s servers, where they take the project and compile it using an actual Mac and Xcode. You can then submit the resulting “real” binary to the App Store yourself, or let Zimusoft publish it to the App Store themselves.