iphone app creation - how difficult?

[M0nkeyb0Y]

I have an idea for a pretty decent iphone app, but no skillz. Just wondering if anyone has developed an app, and how dificult it was? Any decent resources out there people can recommend?

#Thanks

[scaryjim]

I've not looked into iPhone, but if it's a really good idea I could give you some pointers on doing it for Android I got an HTC Magic a couple of weeks ago and I'm desperate to get some spare time sorted so I can start doing test development...

That is, once I've done Zak's homepage, and my Dad's website, and his mates website, and my own website, and my mates website, and...

[TheAnimus]

Step 1, Buy an Apple PC so you can run Mac OSX. (Give Money To Apple)
Step 2, Register for SDK (So Apple Know who dare to augment their creations)
Step 3, Plead with Apple for it to be released into the wild (So Apple can have total control).

All of a sudden, Microsoft seam like saints.

[scaryjim]

All of a sudden, Microsoft seam like saints.

You mean the way they give away a complete windows development kit with IDE to any schmuck who wants to download it, so millions of appalling windows, windows mobile and windows-based web applications are written, requiring you to own a copy of windows to find out how terrible they are and by that point they've already got your money....

[directhex]

TheAnimus is correct in his summary

The result is the ability to write iPhone apps in Objective C, which is Apple's language of choice.

If you pay money to Novell ($400) you can write apps in .NET languages, including C# and VB.NET, even XNA apps with almost no modifications. Other replacement environments for coding exist, too

[M0nkeyb0Y]

Thanks for all the pointers guys; thing is I haven't programmed anything since I had a BBC Micro. Guess this could be a long road if I choose to go down it... will keep you posted if I do.

[scaryjim]

I'd strongly recommend investing in an Android based handset and starting there, tbh. if it's a good app idea you can release it via Android (for which you can download all the necessary development tools free of charge) and use the positive feedback and ratings for your Android app to persuade someone to loan you the money to write it for iPhone as well...

[TheAnimus]

thats actually not bad advice, android is infinitely preferable to COCA and objective C..........

[stytagm]

+1 for Android first, although people have tended to find that you don't make much money selling paid apps on Android (or at least, an awful lot less than for the iPhone).

http://larvalabs.com/blog/iphone/android-market-sales/ <- interesting article from a little software company that make stuff for both phones.

So use Android to develop the app, generate enthusiasm etc, but then migrate to iPhone if you want to make any money.

[mikerr]

iPhone development isn't hard if you are already a programmer

I wouldn't recommend Objective C as a first/learning language though !

[Spud1]

Bit of a thread revival!

To answer the original question rather than simply slating apples policies, it is actually pretty simple to get up and running, but as Mikerr says you really do need to already have a solid grasp of programming concepts and a C++ background doesn't hurt either.

To do things properly you need to know a bit about objective-C, so I would recommend looking at some objective-c tutorials to start with to get a basic grasp. If you understand OO concepts and have a grounding in C++ though it's not too difficult to make the jump, as it's mainly the syntax that you need to learn to start with.

This is a good site to start off with: http://www.otierney.net/objective-c.html

1) Register as an apple developer (free) and download the iPhone SDK which includes XCode.
2) Play with objective-c for a bit using X-code
3) Sit and do the tutorials from the apple website. Within an hour or two you will be able to create a very simple application. First one I wrote was a hello world thing where you could drag a box around the screen, tap it to change the text displayed and pinch to make it bigger/smaller. That was based off one of the apple tutorials. You can then start to modify the tutorial apps that you write to get a feel for things..and from there you can experiment with your own stuff.

If you get a developer key you can install it on your iPhone then also, but for starters the emulator is good enough. The apple developer website and community areas are really good for the tutorials and getting starting guides - but after you are through with them then Google is your friend.

Sure Android and better still Windows Mobile are easier to develop for, but you don't want to do that as you have asked about iPhone development..so if that's what you want to do then go for it! No point in developing for android/WM first as they are totally different paradigms and it won't help you with *good* iPhone development. Sure you can write for one and port it but it won't be as good as targeting it directly from every stage of design. One major advantage you have for iPhone development is that you only have 1 hardware platform to target with identical screen size and user interfaces - this simplifies things massively as you don't have to account for hundreds of different hardware specifications/layouts.

The only downside is that you *must* own a mac to do this properly/legally. There are ways and means of developing on a PC but none are legal..cheapest way is to pick up an old mac-mini off ebay and use that to develop on - even the slowest of them are perfectly fine for iPhone dev

[Stoo]

Thanks for taking the time to post a proper, relevant reply Spud1, even if it is somewhat after the fact

[M0nkeyb0Y]

Thanks for taking the time to post a proper, relevant reply Spud1, even if it is somewhat after the fact

yep - thanks Spud1

[mikerr]

Big spam bump ?

Anyway, since the thread has been bumped, I can recommend Ansca mobile's corona for rapid iphone development
-using the language LUA, it's a bit like visual basic for iphone app creation (not meant as an insult!)

Has a very nice 2d sprite and physics engine built in too.

[salazartwin]

Hack again?!