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I'd like to develope an iOS-app using Flutter. But unfortunately I'm having a Windows PC, so my question is if there are any good working iOS simulators that might be working with the IDE I'm using (intelliJ). Or is it better if I install a VM with macOS on it and develop there?
Thank you for your advice.
Edit Mai 6, 2022:
https://codemagic.io/start/
You can build your iOS Apps here, but you will not be able to test them on a real device.
The Build System of macOS is required to compile and distribute Apps for iOS and macOS.
If you read the License of macOS carefully, you will recognise that it is not allowed to install it anywhere but on a mac device.
There are workaround known in the community like a "Hackintosh". I would not recommend doing it that way. You will most likely have to buy specific hardware in order to get it going smoothly. For that money, you can already buy a real mac. Note, in order to release the App on the AppStore or test it on a real device, you can not use a "Hackintosh" aswell.
There are Macs out there that come at a price tag starting at around $400, and they are more than enough to build apps and be used for programming. Have a look at MacBook Pros 2012 to 2015 or iMacs from 2013 to 2015, or have a look at a Mac mini. I started this way aswell and I don't regret.
Having said that, building your Apps for Android only is a good way to get started with Flutter.
it is impossible. mac is needed because flutter runs in flutter using xcode build. The ios design can be implemented on windows. cupertinoWidget
I am trying to learn react Native for IOS development... I have researched a lot about Swift vs React native and came to this decision.
The question is I am poor as hell. But got a good PC. And I can run VMware OSX in my PC.
I understand that I can install an run Xcode and all that. But I am getting the question whether I can upload my app to an Iphone or Also Can I upload it to Apple Store using my VMware? There is a word comes up like final compiling can't be done without a Mac and All that. Since I got it using a VM is confusing and difficult and also slow. But still I can't spend on a MAC right now. But I have to learn and upload app into the Apple Store along with testing it on an Iphone.
So the question is, Is it a problem using VMware OSX to do these things?
please help, I researched a lot but could't get these things :)
TIA.
The answer is YES. You can make apps with VMware and upload them to App Store with no problems. I’ve done it myself previously.
However, since it is a virtual machine without full graphics support, you cannot simulate and run graphics-related apps and tools that use the GPU. For example,
You cannot use Simulator properly for iOS 11+
You cannot debug view hierarchy since it uses GPU for rendering and
debugging UI elements
You cannot debug SpriteKit or SceneKit projects properly etc.
AirPlay and AirDrop won’t work.
Other than those, you can do almost everything in a VMware macOS. For React native, I don’t think there would be a problem compiling apps with it. You are good to go. But as others said, it would be slower than a real Mac, so you have to bear with it.
You can do anything on your vm like a real mac . It will just be slower depending on your hardware. I installed macOS on a system and got my app to the app store with it.
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How can I develop for iPhone using a Windows development machine?
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I want to create app for my website,I heard that IOS app development time is less than Android thats why I want to create android app.But I have not Mac,I want to learn swift and create IOS app.Is it possible on windows?(I heard that if I use virtual box to use mac it will be illegal thats why I think they will not allow me to put my app to appstore,is not it)?
App development time is not necessarily faster for iOS than it is on Android. It all depends on what kind of app you're building, your skill level, and many other factors.
Developing iOS apps on Windows is possible but not recommended unless you really know what you're doing. I'd suggest you try building an Android app, or look into one of the many cross-platform options, like PhoneGap or Xamarin.
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I will soon start mobile development on iOS and I would like to know if it possible to create an app with Go along with React Native (for example) without using Swift or Objective-C.
I searched for answers about Quora and Google, but none are precise enough.
There are alternatives to native iOS apps without Swift or Obj-c, such as HTML5, Xamarin (C#), PhoneGap, Cordova, etc. but these alternatives have sacrifices.
Most of your extra coding time would be invested in workarounds to make these alternative technologies work. If you want your app to perform better than a web app, then you should use Obj-C or Swift.
This is good question, and I did many research on this, results:
The most promising option in Golang is: Package app lets you write portable all-Go apps for Android and iOS
Most applications in Apple’s App Store are written in the Objective-C and Swift programming languages, and developers typically use Xcode to develop their applications (Four Ways To Build A Mobile Application, Part 1: Native iOS).
There are some cross-platform options:
- React Native
- Building HTML5 mobile apps with the Ionic Framework
- Xamarin.iOS
- Develop iOS applications with RAD Studio
- PhoneGap, build cross-platform apps using HTML, CSS and Javascript
- Cordova apps for iOS
- Adobe AIR for iOS, built with ActionScript and Flash as iOS apps
Some relative questions:
Developing cross platform mobile application
How to build a cross platform app
Building Cross Platform app - recommendation
React Native v Xamarin Forms - Choosing Cross Platform App Environment
List of Delphi language features and version in which they were introduced/deprecated
You can build basic (and more with packages) iOS/Android apps using react-native. It is a great tool to build iOS apps using js. There are loads of modules and community support (https://js.coach/) to help you build out of the basics. I've been building apps on react-native and the result is on par with native apps. There is a small learning curve in react-native but it is definitely worth it
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I've heard that you need to get a Mac if you want to develop iPhone apps. Is this true?
Is it possible to develop iPhone apps using Linux? If yes, what do I need and where do I download the necessary tools?
To provide a differing response, I'm running OS X and Xcode on a virtualised (VMware) machine on Linux. CPU is a Core2Quad (Q8800), and it is perfectly fast. I found a prebuilt VM online (I'll leave it to you to find)
Xcode/iPhone development works perfectly, as does debugging via USB to the phone itself.
It actually surprised me a lot - but I've had no issues at all.
The answer to this really depends on whether or not you want to develop apps that are then distributed through the iPhone store. If you don't, and don't mind developing for the "jailbroken" iPhone crowd - then it's possible to develop from Linux.
Check this chap's page for a comprehensive (if a little complex) guide on what to do :
http://www.saurik.com/id/4
It seems to be true so far. The only SDK available from Apple only targets the macOS environment. I've been upset about that, but I'm looking into buying a mac now, just to do iPhone development. I really dislike what they are doing, and I hope a good SDK come out for other environments, such as Linux and Windows.
Obstacles regarding the SDK:
The iPhone SDK and free software: not a match
Apple's recently released a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it, the news isn't good. Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go.
The SDK itself is a free download, with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator. But in order to actually release software you've written, you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK, and one that requires Apple's approval.
I think it's rather elitist for them to think only macOS users are good enough to write programs for their phone, and the fact you need to buy a $100 license if you want to publish your stuff, really makes it more difficult for the hobbyist programmer. Though, if that's what you need to do, I'm planning on jumping through their hoops; I'd really like to get some stuff developed on my iPhone.
There used to be a project dedicated to solve this defect: iphone-dev
The goal of the iphone-dev project is to create a free, portable, high quality toolchain to enable development for the Apple iPhone and other embedded devices based on the ARM/Darwin platform.
Regarding the alternative tool chain, Saurik's site is useful but for latest firmware development he indicates building on the iPhone itself and stays clear of indicating that you may need to copy necessary iPhone firmware files to your Linux environment. It's not impossible, but just requires additional work, especially for signing the code (there are open alternative solutions out there as well).
Also, take a look at other guides (for the same tool chain) that approach it more methodically.
I'd suggest to still do the final build and code signing and packaging in XCode (which may mean borrowing someone's Mac) in case you run into problems when submitting the application to Apple. Using the alternative tool chain opens up (at least on the Mac) the possibility of using other IDEs other than XCode for developing the application and again resorting to XCode for the deployment and testing with the simulator.
Of course if you do get the code signing / certificate generation working from the command line outside of XCode then you can install a certificate on your actual iPhone and test there (installing the app via iTunes w/your certificate).
The only way I know of doing development in Linux for the iPhone would be to install Vmware and work on getting OS X running in a virtual machine. With that said there are some "legal" concerns in doing that. It is reported that OS X Server can be virtualized but as far as the development story on that I don't know.
If you are truly serious, that's the what I'd investigate.
Good luck.
You can use Tersus (open source), and it lets you export the app as an Xcode project.
You might be able to write code on a Linux box that will eventually find itself on an iPhone or iPad, but ultimately you would need a Mac to test or deploy the code to the iPhone or to submit it to the App store. So ultimately you need a Mac, so you might as well do the work on the Mac too, with all the tools that Apple provide. There are alternatives to Xcode & Objective-C, such as Monotouch - but these utilize the Apple tools too.
You can with some work run OS X in a VM on Linux. However I should point out that this will break the OSX license agreement, even if you buy the copy of OSX - as it is only licensed to run on Apple hardware.
Sorry to give you this news - the ecosystem around the iPhone/iPad is very tightly controlled.
EDIT: One major exception to this is writing a web app for the iPhone. There are some excellent web apps for the iPhone which are almost as good as user experience as a native app. However I did interpret your question to be about native app development. Web apps, although the user can create an icon for launching them - are still 'second class' citizens.
I've had success building iOS apps on linux using the iOS clang toolchain by cjacker. Basically it consists of the upstream clang and llvm tools from your linux distro, a linux port of apple's linker and some extra tools to help simplify the build process (such as converting xcode projects to Makefile format).
It does take a few steps to install, but you're a software developer so you'd be used to that. I posted an up to date howto for Debian 7 (Wheezy) online:
https://rogerkeays.com/how-to-build-an-ios-toolchain-for-linux-debian-7
Otherwise you want to go with the generic instructions which are a little older:
http://code.google.com/p/ios-toolchain-based-on-clang-for-linux/wiki/HowTo_en
Good luck.
There's a framework called Rhodes.
The concept is based on Ruby on Rails and you develop your mobile app in Ruby and HTML, and you can write your code in a Linux environment. You can then create an account at Rhohub, where you add the code (through GitHub), and it allows you to compile it for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian, all off the same code. You don't have to code in Objective-C for iPhone, nor Java for Android, etc. It does the conversions for you. All you need to do is stick to the Rules for creating an iPhone application (or the Phone's you want to develop for) so it can be accepted at iTunes (or the equivalent market).
This will allow you to add the app to iTunes as well.
I have not found any emulators, however, which means that to test your app you need to put it on an iPhone, which is a mission.
I am using this option as I want to create apps for all phones and I use Ruby on Rails already. If you just want to make an app for an iPhone, then invest in a Mac.
Hope this helps.
You're right non-jailbroken phones are limited to Apple's App store and Apple "has the right" to enforce whatever rule, it's totally nonfree territory.
However while developing, one won't have to deal with Apple at all. You can use e.g. rsync to upload the code to the device and test it.
To a certain extent, yes, it is possible. You can type Objective-C code and set up your projects. You can even test the C and C++ parts of your code with gcc.
What you cannot do:
Use Interface Builder to set up your interface, as it's Mac-only. (Not required, but recommended.)
Compile code that uses Apple's Cocoa classes - they don't exist on Linux.
Test code in the Simulator - there isn't one for Linux.
Compile code for real devices or for the App Store - all this requires tools that Apple only provides for OS X.
You need to get mac for it. There are several tool chains available (like win-chain) that actually lets you write and build i Phone applications on windows. There are several associated tutorials to build the Objective C code on Windows. But there is a problem, the apps hence developed will work on Jail broken i Phones only.
We’ve seen few hacks to get over that and make it to App Store, but as Apple keeps on updating SDKs, tool chains need regular updates. It’s a hassle to make it up all the time.If you want to get ready app you can also take help from arcapps its launches apps at a reasonable price.
iphone app development
I did an attempt to port cocos2d-iphone to GNUstep so that you can Develop game based on cocos2d. However for publishing you need a mac. cocos2d-GNUstep.
I would recommend getting a mac because the ios simulator is amazing for testing in the early stages of an app. But I do know of a small company we work with that develops using Unity so they don't need a load of macs. That way they only need one mac for the office and that's just to compile the final build. It also means it works on android but it really depends on what your building because it's a games engine. You may want to look into web apps using frameworks like Sencha Touch Mobile
Unity: http://unity3d.com/
Sencha Touch: http://www.sencha.com/products/touch/
If you value your time, buy a Mac! I don't know enough about Linux development options to offer a viable solution, but it seems the proposed methods involve some pretty roundabout work. If you plan on seriously writing and selling iPhone apps, I think you could easily recoup the cost of a Mac Mini or Macbook. :-)
You will never get your app approved by Apple if it is not developed using Xcode. Never. And if you do hack the SDK to develop on Linux and Apple finds out, don't be surprised when you are served. I am a member of the ADC and the iPhone developer program. Trust, Apple is VERY serious about this.
Don't take the risk, Buy a Macbook or Mac mini (yes a mini can run Xcode - though slowly - boost the RAM if you go with the mini). Also, while I've seen OS X hacked to run on VMware I've never seen anyone running Xcode on VM. So good luck. And I'd check the EULA before you go through the trouble.
PS: After reading the above, yes I agree If you do hack the SDK and develop on Linux at least do the final packaging on a Mac. And submit it via a Mac. Apple doesn't run through the code line by line so i doubt they'd catch that. But man, that's a lot of if's and work. Be fun to do though. :)