

Ask HN: Possible to write iPhone apps on a PC? - jmtame

I'd like to start writing an iPhone app with a few friends while I'm a college student, I've always been a PC though.  I don't really switch to something because it's more trendy, although I am a fan of Steve Jobs and have an iPhone.  Can I develop iPhone apps on my PC, or do I need a Macbook?
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silencio
It's _possible_ , but whether you actually want to and have the know-how is a
different matter. I would assume that the cost of a used MacBook or Mac mini
would end up being more cost-effective in the long run than finding any other
way to develop apps for the iPhone in terms of the time it will consume. For
what it's worth, I have some friends who bought a Mac expressly for iPhone
development but when they're not doing that, they use their prior computers
and run Windows in bootcamp. If you are really dead set on not buying a Mac,
then
[http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/11/11/develop...](http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/11/11/developer-
creates-app-store-game-on-windows)

There is also osx86, but if you run into any problems either with the above
suggestion or a hacked version of OS X to run on non-apple hardware, you're
pretty much screwed, especially if it doesn't happen on "legit" installs.
Apple won't support it (you do get a couple of opportunities to get code-level
help from apple engineers with the iPhone dev program), and neither will most
people you encounter on forums/mailing lists due to all the little
complexities of running an OS on unsupported hardware.

Lastly, what's up with the "trendy"? I just use whatever works for what I
need. For the iPhone, that is a mac. Getting a mac for iPhone development only
makes me trendy in being an iPhone developer, but still I'd be getting it
because I needed it. There is no shame in that :)

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pmjordan
As far as I know, the SDK will only work on an Intel Mac running OSX. (10.5?)
Cheapest option is to go for a Mac Mini, or ask to be allowed to use someone's
mac remotely to use the SDK. As there are a few of you, you could share the
cost. (although you should probably work out who keeps it when you're done/in
case you give up)

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jdg
For what it's worth, while the SDK claims to be Intel only, I managed to get
it mostly working on an old PPC powerbook.

The only piece that _did not_ work was code signing.

In any case, just splurge for a Mac Mini if you're not ready to make a bigger
financial commitment.

~~~
Zev
A recent version of the SDK or one of the old beta versions?

~~~
jdg
The latest version of the SDK that isn't under NDA. :-)

Just do a Google search for iPhone SDK PPC. There are a few blog posts about
how to get it working -- and it was relatively straightforward.

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bjclark
Macs aren't "trendy", they are better.

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charlesju
Nope, you need a Mac. I have a mac mini and it runs the xcode SDK perfectly.

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there
i recently had to be the middle-man for a pc user with an iphone that paid
someone a few hundred dollars to have his idea transformed into an actual
iphone app. i had to do all of the work as far as generating the certificates,
managing all the stuff on apple's iphone developer site, building new
releases, and e-mailing him binaries so he could try them on his phone.

the entire process is laborious enough with a mac and xcode, i can't imagine
how any of it could be done on windows. if nothing else, you will need xcode
just to be able to cross-compile and sign your app with the necessary
certificates to be able to transfer and run the app on your phone.

however, the integrated debugging with gdb that xcode offers is invaluable.
being able to use your computer to step through the code running on your
iphone while it's running is very useful and was required to fix some problems
with this app i was dealing with. without it, all you get is your iphone
closing the app with no error or warning. xcode also allows you to watch the
console of the iphone and see errors/debugging info that is being printed that
you wouldn't normally be able to access from the phone.

that said, you don't really have to switch to a mac to do this. buy a used
macbook or mac mini just to do your development on it, while still using your
pc to do everything else.

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scumola
There are some pirate half-assed ports of OSX for the PC that I've heard about
floating around on the net somewhere. I heard that you can get OSX marginally
working on a stock PC, so I'm guessing that if you can get that far, the SDK
probably won't know the difference.

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xtrimsky_
you can install Mac OS X on some PC's, my Dell laptop Inspiron 1420 can run
Mac OS X perfectly

~~~
darjen
If you don't want to install it directly you could always try using vmware.
May or may not be legal...

~~~
Zev
The only version of OS X that can be run in a VM is Leopard Server. And even
that requires Leopard Server to be running on the host machine (according to
the EULA). So unless you want to delve into osx86, the option of running OS X
in a VM is out. And if you're messing with osx86, you might as well go all the
way and do a native install.

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inklesspen
I recently read about a guy who developed an iPhone game in Visual Studio, but
even there he had parts of the job (such as compilation) that had to be done
on a Mac, so I'm going to join the others here and say you'll have to bite the
bullet.

