Writing iPhone apps on linux - What tools do you need

Question

Hello.

I wanted to know if it's possible to WRITE and COMPILE/TEST iPhone apps on a linux platform. I've been on google for a couple of days now, and people either talk about "Mac OS X only!", or "Develop jailbroke apps on Linux". My dev partner has a mac and has a certificate to sign the apps. I don't have a mac, but I will be doing most of the development.

So what I want to do is simply develop/test the app in linux, and when it's finished, simply hand over the code to him, who will then compile the finalized app and sign it ready for submission to the app store. Could anyone tell me what linux tools I would need to accomplish this?

Answer 1

Going out on a limb I'd have to vote 'no' or 'not exactly' in this case. I'm afraid you'll be able to do plain text editing and some Objective-C stuff. GCC can compile that on Linux, so at least you can do some of it. Is your partner's mac accessible remotely to you?

Answer 2

Considering that the iPhone SDK and IDE (Xcode) is only for Mac systems you could do one of two things:

1. Buy a Mac Mini, very cheap solution since Xcode is free
2. Run a dual boot system and hook up a version of Snow Leopard (or just Leopard) and then get Xcode on that.

If time is not an issue and neither is accessing the iphone's native features (i.e. camera, ipod, etc), then look into what Adobe is doing with the Flash Platform on the iPhone using a Low Level Virtual Machine to make actionscript into iPhone native code. You can get more info on that at http://www.adobe.com/iphone

Good luck!

P.S. the beta version of Flash CS5 is due out sometime before the end of this year. If this isn't a game, then maybe look into the Slider Framework for mobile development.

Answer 3

I don't think you're going to find anyone who has done this. However, if you're set on not using a Mac for some reason, the gnu compiler has a front-end which supports objective-c 2.0. In theory, it would be possible to write objective-c code and compile it on any OS that you can run the gnu compiler on. However, if you're not using the Mac (and therefore not using Apple's tools), you're not using Interface Builder, which means all of the UI would have to be written in code. You would also not have the iPhone simulator, and you would also have to find a way to copy the libraries, headers, and other files off of a Mac and into your Linux environment for compilation and linking. To my knowledge, there is nothing out there that's going to provide this all for you.

Is there a reason you're avoiding a Mac? It really will make this process easier for you. As a developer you're going to want to build the UI as easily as possible, and you'll want to have the simulator available for testing as you develop iteratively. If you're building an application that's going to make money, then spending 500$ on a Mac Mini shouldn't be a concern.

Answer 4

Hey, thanks for the answers. The reason I'm "avoiding" a mac is simply that I have absolutely no money whatsoever! :D I will buy a mac... in about 5-6 years when I have successfully managed to save for one.

My partner's machine IS remotely accessible, but VNC is rather sluggish. I'm currently attempting a VM solution, that MIGHT work. If not, my friend has a Dell that we could perhaps convert into a mac.

Thanks again.

Btw, I'm the original poster, just wasn't logged in when I asked the question.