I looked at the Java Micro Edition, and did some simple programming using a mobile phone emulator. Then I looked at X-Code, but that seemed to require a MacIntosh for development. Is Objective-C the way to go? Also, what is the best 'getting-started' book to use?

Views: 82

Replies to This Discussion

how are you
If you're wanting to write for the App Store, XCode is pretty much it. All of the iPhone libraries are either Objective-C (user interface) with some C level under pinnings.

As far as books go, to be honest I don't believe anything really talks about the current 3.1 OS, so I'm a bit hesitant to recommend anything today. The Apple docs on the dev site aren't too bad.

rob.
Mara said:
how are you
Let's just say I've been better.
I have this error: ".objc_class_name_MCPConnection", referenced from:
If you look at some of the developer agreements, at least one of them specified that the software must be developed on a Mac.

The Mac Mini is the cheapest to buy new, but any Intel-based Mac will do. I recommend against any of the single-core Macs myself.

I've read Zdziarski's "iPhone Forensics" book and it was really good. (Perhaps outdated now.) And its an O'Reilly book. So his other books might also be good.

I've looked through a "cookbook" in the bookstore. It seemed really straight-forward, except that it kept mentioning things that were not in the public API's (Apple's agreements require using only public API's in apps for the App Store.)

Aaron Hillegass and the Big Nerd Ranch have been doing Cocoa training and books for many years. His Cocoa and Mac OS X books are very good. (Objective-C is rolled up in there too.)

Once you have your developer account with Apple, you can access some videos on iPhone programming.

There are some alternative iPhone App generators out there, but they are usually specific to games and such. Apparently Adobe has a Flash-to-iPhone app generator as well. (Turns a flash show into a stand-alone app.)

It is possible to do Objective-C coding with any computer that can run the gcc compiler. I've seen a friend using it to write Objective-C on a Linux box (intending to transfer to a Mac sometime later.) However, that does not include the Cocoa frameworks that ship with the Apple OS's.

XCode does have some very good features for programming on iPhone or Mac. In particular, the code-completion feature makes entering the very-long method names very easy. (Not only do you know there is no typo in the name, but the argument list is completed as well.)
Thanks! I'll start looking at getting a mac and diving into this.
Hi Kevin,
I noticed that, like me, you are getting into iPhone development.

I joined the iPhone Development group and pretty new to iPhone development. I am looking to network with other developers, share my experiences and learn from others. I have been an applications developer for a large corporations in Jax, FL for more than 25 years. I got involved with iPhone development as a fall back due to many layoffs at my company. Fortunately I am still employed and enjoying working with Apple's XCODE SDK.

I just released my first iPhone App, Party Twacker, on December 11, 2009. If you ever get stumped on and iPhone dev issues, feel free to send me a message.

Take Care,
Kevin Collins
I checked out the party Twacker - cool! Sadly, I am not into the bar or even the drinking scene anymore, but if I was I'm sure I'd use it. You can see some of my stuff here:
http://user.gru.net/nemesis/iphoneAppPages/
You have been busy! Six apps already in iTunes. That's impressive. I am not trying to get personal but how has your marketing been going? I am in the process of publishing a Lite Version of my app to try get more interested buyers. With the App Store not having a return policy, people are more reluctant to purchase apps. I am checking out your apps now and they look really cool. Best of Luck with your Apps.
Kevin

Kevin Neelands said:
I checked out the party Twacker - cool! Sadly, I am not into the bar or even the drinking scene anymore, but if I was I'm sure I'd use it. You can see some of my stuff here:
http://user.gru.net/nemesis/iphoneAppPages/
How's marketing going? I'm earning enough to treat myself to delivery pizza once a week. I *think* good reviews help the marketing process, so if you enjoy and of my apps please write one! The picture-kaleidoscope is a rather good fit with party twacker - take a photo of a cute girl, create a a kaleidoscope image of her, and she'll be tickled pink!

RSS

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

Arm Launches AI-Powered Copilot Assistant to Migrate Workflows to Arm Cloud Compute

At the recent GitHub Universe 2025 developer conference, Arm unveiled the Cloud migration assistant custom agent, a tool designed to help developers automate, optimize, and accelerate the migration of their x86 cloud workflows to Arm infrastructure.

By Sergio De Simone

Presentation: WASM in the Enterprise: Secure, Portable, and Ready for Business

Andrea Peruffo explains the power of server-side WebAssembly, especially on the JVM. Using Red Hat's Chicory runtime, he details how to achieve secure sandboxing, fault isolation, and cross-architecture portability without foreign function interfaces. Learn through case studies how WebAssembly solves real-world enterprise problems, including achieving 10x - 40x speedups with AOT compilation.

By Andrea Peruffo

System Initiative Unveils Expansion with Real-Time Multi-Cloud Discovery and Automation

System Initiative recently announced a major set of new capabilities designed to give engineering organizations instant, real-time visibility and AI-driven control across any cloud platform or API.

By Craig Risi

Memori Expands Into a Full-Scale Memory Layer for AI Agents Across SQL and MongoDB

Memori is an innovative, open-source memory system that empowers AI agents with structured, long-term memory using standard databases like SQL and MongoDB. It seamlessly integrates into existing frameworks, enabling efficient data extraction and retrieval without vendor lock-in. Ideal for developers, Memori's modular design ensures reliability and scalability for next-gen intelligent systems.

By Robert Krzaczyński

How Discord Scaled Its ML Platform from Single-GPU Workflows to a Shared Ray Cluster

Discord has detailed how it rebuilt its machine learning platform after hitting the limits of single-GPU training. The changes enabled daily retrains for large models and contributed to a 200% uplift in a key ads ranking metric.

By Matt Foster

© 2025   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service