

Build and test iPhone/iPad apps without a Mac - amirnathoo
http://trigger.io/cross-platform-application-development-blog/2012/06/13/new-features-test-iphone-ipad-apps-on-windows-and-linux-embed-media-players-and-widgets-updated-toolkit/

======
creamyhorror
I think you can also build and test iOS apps on Windows with this iOS Build
Environment (but you need a jailbroken device):

<http://www.pmbaty.com/iosbuildenv/>

It lets you code in MS Visual Studio and compile to a .deb/.ipa. Then you
transfer it to your device and run it. A bit hacky, admittedly. In the end you
still have to sign and submit the app on a Mac, but at least the development
is all done on Windows.

I also came across Dragonfire-SDK and one or two other iOS remote
compilation/signing services, but this looks like it'll work better for coding
directly in Obj-C.

~~~
conradev
Huh, I'll have to check the licenses on some of the software included, and see
if they allow for the code to be sold as part of a package.

~~~
josephcooney
Yes. Maybe they're trying to be cute with the 'donation' angle, "hey, we're
not selling....we just require a donation of a fixed amount".

------
rogerbraun
You can also do this with Adobe Air. It's also free. Take a look at
<http://www.flashdevelop.org/>.

~~~
dugmartin
I wish mobile AIR development would get more traction in the developer
community. I'm building games with it (using FlashDevelop) and it is great.
The best part is that since at its core it is just a SWF I can also run the
game over a (Flash enabled) browser.

~~~
rogerbraun
I am actually doing games, too. When we started our current game, we looked at
the options for multiplatform development and found Air. I was really
surprised by the (technical) quality of the system. It's easy to set up, easy
to program and has really good performance. I now wonder why I have never
really heard about this.

~~~
khalidmbajwa
Adobe's toolchain is breathtakingly sophisticated , mature and powerful. It's
incredibly easy to start writing really powerful programes with AIR. I look at
all these HTML5 frameworks each with their own idiosyncrasies and pain-points,
and the stuff you have to do to make it work seamlessly across devices and i
want to cry. Then what is the reason AIR never really got traction ?
Performance ! AIR is a known performance hog, on mobiles it can be virtually
unusable. Adobe really missed the ship on this one. They had everything going
for them, but they were never really able to make it's performance
worthwhile.Which is a shame, given how much of joy the Flex/Air Platform is to
work with

~~~
dugmartin
You should check out the newest AIR release (3.3) - with Stage3D you get great
gpu driven performance. You don't really need to do anything new to get it if
you use wrapper frameworks like Starling (<http://gamua.com/starling/>)

~~~
khalidmbajwa
Yes i know about the new version of AIR, Stage3d And Starling. But it's all
moot. This horse was shot in the face long ago when adobe decided to give flex
up for adaptation of the Apache Foundation.Adobe is moving away from AIR, it
clearly said so in it's own blog post, they are betting on HTML5.I don't see a
reason why i would we writing something in a technology which even in the view
of it's creator would be going obsolete in some time.

------
primitur
Here is my new, awesome, cross-platform development methodology: use a MOAI
host for iOS, Android, Windows, OSX, or Linux (your pick), which simply takes
its sources from <http://somewhere.at/project.zip> or thereabouts. Code on a
local workstation (Windows/OSX/Linux), test the app, deploy immediately to a
local Android or iOS device for testing.

<http://getmoai.com/>

Simply kicks ass.

------
reedlaw
Any instructions for Linux?

~~~
amirnathoo
Working on it, can you email support@trigger.io and we'll email the draft when
it's ready.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
This is hardly a new or innovative service, these guys have done it for over 2
years now (IIRC):

<http://dragonfiresdk.com/>

~~~
lnanek2
PhoneGap has a remote build service like in this announcement too. I can only
say this article is about catching up to others...

~~~
jamesbrady
You mean PhoneGap Build? It's actually a bit different, because you have to
send up your whole app to their server, where a compile and package is done
and the fully-baked app is returned.

Useful in some situations, to be sure, but this approach means you still get
all the benefits of the Trigger toolchain - builds are done in seconds rather
than minutes.

------
avojro
Do trigger.io apps have the same speed/responsiveness issues that people
usually experience with PhoneGap?

~~~
amirnathoo
You have to write your apps in the right way for mobile and we've blogged
about ways to do that:

[http://trigger.io/cross-platform-application-development-
blo...](http://trigger.io/cross-platform-application-development-
blog/2012/03/02/how-to-build-fast-html5-mobile-apps-using-backbone-js-zepto-
js-and-trigger-io/)

We've also done benchmarks of our native bridge vs phonegap showing it to be
5x faster on Android:

[http://trigger.io/cross-platform-application-development-
blo...](http://trigger.io/cross-platform-application-development-
blog/2012/02/24/why-trigger-io-doesnt-use-phonegap-5x-faster-native-bridge/)

------
kogus
You can also use Delphi on Windows of all things.

[http://www.itwriting.com/blog/4841-hands-on-with-delphi-
xe2-...](http://www.itwriting.com/blog/4841-hands-on-with-delphi-xe2-for-
apple-ios.html)

------
Cushman
This + RubyMotion is getting dangerously close to Heroku for apps. Not sure
what that means exactly, but I'm super excited.

~~~
samstave
It means a big exit.

