PureBasic to develope iPhone / iPod touch applications?

heaven6502 · Post by **heaven6502** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:47 pm

I am new here but using PureBasic from time to time. As I can compile Mac OS X versions I was wondering if there is any possibility or plan for the future to have a iPod Touch / iPhone export functionality???

Right now I am under the impression that I need a Mac to start coding on iPhone/iPod but I want to use my PC and best PureBasic for it?

Any comments/ideas?

Violet · Post by **Violet** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:18 pm

As far as I know, it's not possible. There is only the official iPhone SDK from Apple for OS X.

Kaeru Gaman · Post by **Kaeru Gaman** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:32 pm

I heard there are inofficial SDKs also running on PC, but I'm not sure.

but with PureBasic nothing will be possible, because afaik iPhone / iPod don't have an x86/x64 CPU architecture.

Violet · Post by **Violet** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:57 pm

...yes, right that came in my mind, too. ^^ It would be much effort to port everything to the iPhone OS (a special Version of OS X). But what would be the advantages? Were would be the Platform-Indepence which makes PureBasic that, what it is? I think much of the current PureLibraries are not really useful for the iPhone. There have to be developed much more Libraries for it, which are also only usable on it. It's a completely different Medium/Device.

I would recommend to switch to other Languages. But also there is another solution:

http://www.stonetrip.com/

the ShiVa Game Engine, which works now also on iPhone. It's something like a game Creator... I played a bit around with it some time ago, Seems to be useful, but you have to get into it (just like Blender).
It's free ("PLE", "Personal Learning Edition") in full version, you just can't publish your projects.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:25 am

This would be nice (As I have an ipod touch and love it

) but I doubt it will happen.

It all needs to go via Apple's app store for purchase or download via itunes unless the device is jailbroken, otherwise it needs approval from apple. The 2nd gen ipod touch's are not jail broken yet and a lot of people don't like doing this anyway.

While I'm not overjoyed that apple control the flow of apps, there are lots of apps out there, lots of redundancy, lots of free stuff so I'm not going to complain. Just yesterday I got a japanese english kanji dictionary based on sqlite and edict and a math graphing app for my ipod for free.

I think there's a lot more to this than just just creating the compiler (which is no small task by iteslf ofcourse) but if it were to get done, theres a great distribution channel there for sales and searching apps waiting to help you make money....

Mistrel · Post by **Mistrel** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:16 am

I would rather see an ARM compiler for PPC.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:54 am

Ipods and iphones are ARM chips.

Its more about the OS than the chip though I think. I had a HPC on ARM running winCE once, very different from the apple cut down freebsd thing or whatever it is

heaven6502 · Post by **heaven6502** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 3:08 pm

I am retro game coder mainly on 6502 based systems and more into stuff like oldschool things...

so for me it was always nearly impossible to switch on Windows coding as all of my "code takes over hardware 100%" was gone since Amiga times...

GBA/PSX/DS drew back my attention to modern plattforms instead of Atari800/c64... but I do not understand (and maybe never will...

) OOP and c++ and modern dev chains like Visual Studio. So that's why I remain in "Procedual" world and bought Purebasic.

I love this rapid development stuff and I do not have to bother much about DirectX/OpenGL stuff... so it is really "my" language.

As AppStore and the iPods/iPhones do have a nice distribution channel and they are little "easy machines" I would like to compile stuff for it.

I tried even the 360 XNA stuff but again with c# etc hard task for me as non pro programmer...

So I thought OS X support is here so I thought could be relativly easy to port simple stuff to the iPods. That was my intension... I do not want to set up via bootcamp etc a Mac OS X on my PC simply to play around with the iPod SDKs...

the.weavster · Post by **the.weavster** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 9:29 pm

heaven6502 wrote:So I thought OS X support is here so I thought could be relativly easy to port simple stuff to the iPods. That was my intension... I do not want to set up via bootcamp etc a Mac OS X on my PC simply to play around with the iPod SDKs...

I think the only way you develop for the iPhone without getting stiffed by Apple is to jailbreak it. This might be worth a look for you:http://www.linux.com/feature/136463

A few weeks ago the company I work for issued me an iPhone 3G and I find it hard to put into words how much I detest the stupid thing. It's too big and heavy to carry as your everyday mobile phone (unless you're the kind of chap who has a man bag), the camera's crap, you can't just drag and drop your mp3 files in windows explorer you have to install the dreadful iTunes software, there's no Micro SD slot, the amount of time the battery holds its' charge is pathetic... Aaaargh, it irritates me in so many ways.

I even wish they'd make it more difficult to use, I'm sure anyone who sees you operating an iPhone must assume you're such a retard that you can't even work a Nokia.

If it were mine I would definitely jailbreak it so maybe I could get some entertainment from trying to program it, I can't imagine what else the chuffin' things are any use for.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 2:48 am

"It's not a purse! It's a man bag!"

I can relate to some of this. I bought the ipod touch because I have a mobile phone and didn't want the extra weight of another phone/camera. the 2nd gen touch is a lot thinner and lighter than the iphone, has more memory and a faster cpu.

I was kind of miffed about having to install iTunes too, I just kept my mp3s on folder structures etc and I couldn't give a sh1t about album covers. Actually though, it's okay and in the end I found it pushed me to get download a freeware app called mp3tag and clean my collection info up. In the ipod this gives me a lot more sorting features as an mp3 player. (I don't use itunes for my PC mp3 player though still)

Apple app store (bite my tongue for saying it) is quite good, I wish they had something like that for PC freeware/shareware, in fact it seems odd they don't have it for normal mac os software. Lots of searchable software rated by other customers usually between 0$ and $5 (with a couple of apps up to $10) . Info page and screenshots all in a standard format when you want something and 1 click to get it (plus a pwd if you need to pay)

I use it for notes in meetings, shopping lists as the keyboard is easy to use.

I'm so happy with it that if it broke, I would buy another one right away

the.weavster · Post by **the.weavster** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 11:09 pm

Some of the third party apps in the Apple store do look very cool, just look at this: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tSX6isV22QM

Apple obviously have put a great deal of effort into making the interface o.a.p. friendly but although I can see it's clever it doesn't do it for me.

Oh, and in order to 'activate' my iPhone I'm supposed to provide Apple with my personal information. They are the manufacturer not the service provider, what the hell's it got to do with them who I am? I don't have to give my details to Birdseye when I want to buy fish fingers.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 12:26 am

Aaarrrrgggghhh,

You just put that CM theme in my head for birdseye fishfingers!

It's been about 20 years since I've seen it... (possibly the aussie CM is different to the Brit one)

Rook Zimbabwe · Post by **Rook Zimbabwe** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:27 am

You know I wrote a small app in PB that runs on Windows Mobile (Hello World) but not since the upgrade!

the.weavster · Post by **the.weavster** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:42 pm

pdwyer wrote:Aaarrrrgggghhh,

You just put that CM theme in my head for birdseye fishfingers!

Mmm, Birdseye fish fingers and Green Dragon Thai sweet chilli source...

DoubleDutch · Post by **DoubleDutch** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 10:15 am

Being able to create Arm code (it would have to be a cross compiler - I wouldn't want to create apps on an iPhone or PocketPC/Phone) would be great (as I've mentioned before).

See:
http://www.eetimes.eu/213402291