What Computer language for writing phone apps?

The Corinthian

Kavrocks wrote: »

I could tell you I found Quantum Mechanics a very easy subject to learn in school whilst you could find it extremely hard.

When did they start doing that in secondary school? Surely you don't mean calculating half-lives - it would be exaggerating a bit to say they're teaching quantum mechanics.

Kavrocks

The Corinthian wrote: »

When did they start doing that in secondary school? Surely you don't mean calculating half-lives - it would be exaggerating a bit to say they're teaching quantum mechanics.

It was an example, nothing more.

previous user

imitation wrote: »

IMO Windows mobile may be a good place to start from scratch, as if you are starting app development from scratch not only do you need to learn the basics of the language, you'll need to Learn an IDE and the phone specifics. Put them all together and you have a serious learning curve.

Visual Studio is the easiest IDE to grasp imo and should give you the least hassle to install and debug on. Intellisense should make figuring out what classes do a bit easier.

I wouldn't go in with the attitude of making squillions, its just not going to happen, but you may pick up some really useful skills.

Yeh, I know, I like gaming and I just thought it would be great to actually create a game for the iphone or something like that.

Tom Dunne

previous user wrote: »

Is Objective -C easy to learn,
I know html and CSS (don't laugh). and I can do websites, but I'd be really interested in developing some simple games for iphone apps on the side as well.

I have taught an introductory, 6-week course on iOS development, I can say that students found it quite difficult. They had already studied Java but found the jump to OSX, xCode and Objective-C very challenging.

It requires determination and, ideally, previous solid programming experience.

ozmo

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I have taught an introductory, 6-week course on iOS development, I can say that students found it quite difficult. They had already studied Java but found the jump to OSX, xCode and Objective-C very challenging.

It requires determination and, ideally, previous solid programming experience.

Yes - in order of difficulty I would but
* IPhone development using ObjectiveC - very tricky to get into - but best market for selling apps.
* Java development on Android - a fair bit easier - but I don't like the tools.
* C# on a windows platform - Easiest and nicest tools - but currently a more limited market for apps - might change soon.


However there is an alternative - you can write apps in HTML and javascript for the IPhone - they look just like normal apps.
They would then require a internet connection to use them - but it works very well - and might be a good place to start.
You can write them in windows (any text editor) and test with safari - no need compile - and you can wrap the html in a simple app that Apple provide to give it a "Downloadable" look.

Here is one such HTML and Javascript application for the IPhone - quite a good one - written by Microsoft !

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-29/tech/30453487_1_windows-phone-app-android

(oh - that article doesnt show the wrapping of the html app in an app - but when you do the browser title bar goes away - you can also get rid of the title bars by manually Selecting "Save to Desktop" on the IPhone )

mwrf

Following on from ozmo,

Have a look at Sencha Touch
http://www.sencha.com/products/touch
You can target Android, iOS and others

With the HTML5 Cache Manifest or other solutions such as phonegap your application does not need to have an internet connection.

Dave!

Lads anyone know how to go about developing iOS apps on Windows?

PM me if necessary!

Atomic Pineapple

Dave! wrote: »

Lads anyone know how to go about developing iOS apps on Windows?

PM me if necessary!

You'll need a virtual box running a virtual Mac environment to run XCode, even at that though I've been led to believe that Apple can find out it was developed this way and may still block it from the App store.

Been looking to get into personal iOS dev myself and can't afford a personal MAC either but have used the virtual environment and it's a right pain!

Dave!

Yeah I can imagine, bit too much hassle from what I gather

Atomic Pineapple

Dave! wrote: »

Yeah I can imagine, bit too much hassle from what I gather

Well it is for me as I just want to make a small personal app to showcase my knowledge of iOS in terms of a portfolio/CV but if you have a potential genius idea for an app it might be different

/Off to adverts to check second hand MAC prices!

The Corinthian

Dave! wrote: »

Lads anyone know how to go about developing iOS apps on Windows?

Look at making your machine dual boot with MacOS as one of the options - cheaper than a second hand Mac, TBH.

Tom Dunne

You might want to look at http://www.macincloud.com/

It's a Mac, in the cloud. You access it via Remote Desktop.

Giblet

I use VMWare.

Dave!

Lots of options there Found some after Googling too... Any kind of consensus on what would be the best option? Are they all pretty messy?

VMWare or dual boot would seem the 'cleanest' options

edit

Doing a web app and using PhoneGap to house it seems another popular options. Are there any 'big' or successful apps that do this? Or is it just an option for those of us too cheap to buy a Mac!

FWIW, I've got an old iBook G4 that I bought about 6 years ago. It's an absolute dog, so I wouldn't fancy doing any kind of hardcode development on it, but I could probs use it to submit the app to the app store? It's running OS X

mwrf

Dave! wrote: »

Lots of options there Found some after Googling too... Any kind of consensus on what would be the best option? Are they all pretty messy?

VMWare or dual boot would seem the 'cleanest' options

edit

Doing a web app and using PhoneGap to house it seems another popular options. Are there any 'big' or successful apps that do this? Or is it just an option for those of us too cheap to buy a Mac!

FWIW, I've got an old iBook G4 that I bought about 6 years ago. It's an absolute dog, so I wouldn't fancy doing any kind of hardcode development on it, but I could probs use it to submit the app to the app store? It's running OS X

Yes, there are lots of "big" successful web apps using phonegap. Some examples here:
http://phonegap.com/apps/?sort=all

shanemangan

Some sites I've used in the past and reference now and again for coding...

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://www.codecademy.com/

http://code.google.com/