Airplay SDK vs Monotouch? - objective-c

I think the title is pretty self explanatory. The only thing is I come from the background of XCode and Obj-C and I have this project that I have to develop for IOS, Android and BB. So what are my options? which one would you recommend? I am leaning more towards Mono, is that a good call?
A

Do you have any experience with C#?
Since you have an Objective-C background, it might be easier for you to use Obj-C, and Java for Android/BlackBerry. Otherwise it will be C# for iOS/Android and Java for BlackBerry (you could potentially have to learn 2 languages there).
I have very a strong preference for MonoTouch and find it much more productive than Objective-C, but I came from a C# .Net/Windows background.
I would stay away from "cross-platform" tools such as Airplay SDK, you app will probably be slower and not feel very native in the end. MonoTouch and Mono for Android are more truly native.

As you want to target three platform, I think your only option is Marmalade. Otherwise you have to write your project for those three platforms, separately. Using Marmalade you can distribute your project for all those mentioned platform easily just using their Deployment Tool. And for iOS development you don't need to own a Mac or xCode, although for publishing your project into Apple Store you still need to join Apple Developer program.
I personally not recommend MonoTouch as you still need a Mac computer (if you already don't have one). Plus, you still face the problem with porting your project into BB because AFIK MonoTouch don't support it. Also with MonoTouch you have to learn Cocoa, Cocoa Touch framework and Android framework, as MonoTouch is only an abstract class over these SDKs in C#. But if you go with Marmalade you only need to learn Marmalade SDK, which IMP is simpler than Android and Cocoa*.

Related

Can WinObjC apps run on iPhones?

I know that this is really basic, but since this is a new tag and technology, I hope you'll permit the question.
Having just discovered the existence of WinObjC (the Windows Bridge for iOS project) I want to understand what I can do with this before I start to devote time to it.
The following project description is a little confusing to me:
The Windows Bridge for iOS (also referred to as WinObjC) is a
Microsoft open-source project that provides an Objective-C development
environment for Visual Studio and support for iOS APIs. The bridge
allows you to create Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that will
run on many Windows devices using iOS APIs and Objective-C code
alongside Windows 10 features like Cortana and Live Tiles.
I mean, I see it says for iOS but OTOH it says that it allows you to create UWP apps that run on many Windows devices. I am embarrassed to say I find this confusing.
I feel 90% sure that it is not for developing iPhone apps, but a 10% chance I can develop for iPhone without being able to buy a new enough Macbook is enough to make me ask this question.
The Windows Bridge for iOS allows you to build UWP apps by reusing code you wrote for an iOS app. Say, for instance, you wrote an iPhone game; you could use the bridge to turn it into a UWP game that runs on Windows desktops, laptops and touch-screen devices. You could also use the bridge to add Windows-specific features like Live Tiles and Cortana integration.
If you'd like to develop for iOS without having to buy a new MacBook, you might want to check out another Microsoft project called Xamarin which allows you to do cross-platform mobile development right from Visual Studio.

Has anybody upgraded existing Universal Framework for iOS 8 and Xcode 6

There appear to be lots of people having issues since Apple's updates to support Universal Frameworks in their latest release. We have been using Universal Frameworks for quite some time. Of course, the update broke our Universal Frameworks and I have been trying to figure out how to get them to work again. I have looked at a few questions and found this one to be exceptionally helpful. There appears to be some confusion regarding whether scripts are still needed. I found some instructions here that say the new scripts are python scripts instead of shell scripts. But even with the information I have found out there, I am still confused.
Can anyone give me clear consise steps to convert an existing Universal Framework into one that compiles and builds in Xcode 6?
We are also facing similar issue when we upgraded to xcode6 and haven't found any solution so we decided to use apple ios custom cocoa touch framework .Below is the tutorial for building frameworks using xcode 6.
http://rescueprogramming.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-to-create-custom-cocoa-touch.html
We have written up a step by step guide on how to implement and integrate Xcode Frameworks that describes:
1) How to create an Xcode 6 Cocoa Touch Framework.
2) How to create a dependent Xcode 6 Cocoa Touch Framework.
3) How to Integrate your working Xcode 6 Frameworks and dependent Frameworks into an iOS application.
This step-by-step instruction guide can be found here:
https://kodmunki.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/universal-cocoa-touch-frameworks-for-ios-8/

Windows SDK for COCOA API

I'm just starting off with IOS app dev. I was just curious to know if there are any sdk's in windows available to simulate the cocoa API.
In simple words can i program, compile and execute an Objective-C code on windows OS through any simulators, if any?
The original question was about running Cocoa apps on Windows, not developing iOS apps under Windows. There are a few projects that are attempting to implement the Cocoa APIs under windows, but I'm not sure how successful they are being. There is one at http://www.cocotron.org/ which looks promising.
Unfortunately, the only real way to do iOS development is in a genuine Mac environment.

Programming for Ipad from Windows [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 12 years ago.
Possible Duplicates:
iPhone development on PC
iPhone development on Windows
Do I really need a Mac to make small simple apps for iPad? Is there any kind of work around? Cool IDE?
Yes, you need an Intel-based Mac to develop for iPhone/iPad if you want to do so with their native SDK.
There are workarounds, a few of which are listed here but they may be rendered unusable with the latest version of iPhone OS since they will soon disallow just about anything that doesn't use the native SDK
I wasn't going to post it, but you did say any reply :)
Browser based (safari compatible) apps would be one "work around". I know it's a weak answer, but sometimes people miss the obvious answers so there you go.
Yes. And you can use Xcode IDE
You will likely need OS X.
Both Monotouch and XCODE run on OS X.
If you can get OS X to run on a non-Mac then no, you don't need a Mac.
However, realistically... yes you do.
The iPhone and iPad SDK relies on code that comes packaged with the Mac OS. If you want to build legitimate applications and have the possibility of listing those apps in the iTunes store, you must build them on a Mac.
There are ways around this to build apps that will never be distributed ... but those methods tend to be highly illegal.
You can still develop iPhone/iPad WebApps that look like native apps on pretty much any web development platform/toolset.
While I am not an attorney, based upon the new SDK agreement, I believe you can use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create native iPhone/iPad apps. There is actually a book already there that talks about how to do that. Here is the book, http://www.amazon.com/Building-iPhone-Apps-HTML-JavaScript/dp/0596805780/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274474001&sr=8-1
If you want to create small simple apps for iPhone/iPad, you can create a Web app that runs in Safari using HTML. You can actually create fairly slick apps with this method and make them look like native apps. I've create some using jQTouch and they look like native apps. You can test them either in Safari on Windows or on your iPhone or iPad.
It wouldn't be easy to develop an iPhone/iPad application on Windows. You would have to install OSX86 on your PC, or run a virtualized OSX install through vmware if possible. Apple is incredibly restrictive on software provisioning and app store approval, so you may have a hard time testing and releasing your app later on. For these reasons and more, I'm switching to Android development.

What is Adobe Air?

What exactly is Adobe Air? I've seen a lot of people talking about it and I've even seen applications for it but I'm still not entirely sure what makes it unique or how it is different from other languages. Can someone please give me the concise version from a programmer's point of view?
Edit:
I wasn't familiar with Flex so I found this nice explanation: http://www.onflex.org/ted/2008/01/what-is-flex.php
In a nutshell.
Start with the assumption that you know what Flex and Actionscript are. Then take the fact that they both run exclusively in your browser and to all intents and purposes are for building web apps.
Now assume you want to develop the same app, with the same language and user interface resources, but run it as a desktop app on a workstion (PC, Mac, or Linux interchangeably).
AIR is what you add (as a link library) to Flex and Actionscript to accomplish that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Integrated_Runtime
Write cross-platform desktop apps in Flash, Flex, HTML, Ajax.
Adobe Air is a framework which allows to build desktop applications and it is based on HTML/JS and Flash.
Adobe Air its Flash Runtime that can run Flash inside it and provide access to your operation system.
Adobe Air can be used for gaming and software as usual Flash. Its stand alone flash player with extended and reach functionality. For example you can develop flash app that will interact with filesystem or hardware.
Also its support native extensions so you can extend Air using native C/Java libraries.
air can be produced as exe for windows, app for mac, ipa for ios, apk for android, linux with limitations and blackberry.
Adobe Air is cross platform language/tool for mobile, window and OSX application.