Mac OS X Development

Question

I would love to begin developing applications for the MAC OS X, although I have to idea where to start.

Problem: I currently do not, and cannot afford a new MAC OS X-based computer. Solution: A very good friend loves trying out things that I've made for Windows, and also owns a MAC OS X computer, and is willing to test these new creations.

Now I am faced with another problem. I don't know which language to use to develop these apps in. I am a .NET Developer and seeing as though I can only use a Windows based PC to develop MAC apps, where should I start?

I've heard of Mono, and have used it on Linux before, would Mono be an option for MAC development on a Windows based computer, too? Are there any other ways around this?

Any help is appreciated. :)

Thank you

jt

Answer 1

You could start with a cross platform language like Java, Python or Ruby. The applications you write this way either work immediately on OSX or need only little adjustments. I work with Java to develop for OSX, windows and linux. Java is not too different from C# and comes completely free. With some extra work Java applications can look like native OSX or windows or linux.

But this way you don't get any of the special features of OSX. For these you do need the OSX environment objective-c and cocoa.

Answer 2

If you don't want your applications to be total shite that makes me cry, then buy a Mac and start reading and learning about what makes a high quality Mac OS X application. The standards for quality are much higher on this side of the river, you'll soon see.

Answer 3

You need to have MacOS X and use Xcode with Objective C; this is the native environment, and you won't be able to appreciate MacOS X UX without using it. You may be able to install MacOS X on a PC, although this isn't approved or supported by Apple.

Just don't take half measures, it isn't worth it.

Answer 4

Sorry for this late answer, but I am having the same problem. After looking around, I have seen people be able to install OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on their Windows 7 computers using a virtual machine. Maybe this website from lifehacker may help:

http://lifehacker.com/5583650/run-mac-os-x-in-virtualbox-on-windows

These people tell you how to install Snow Leopard. You may not install Xcode 4.33 on Snow Leopard, but it's worth a try. There also may be places where they show you how to install Lion itself onto their PC's, but Lifehacker has the most straightforward tutorials.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

All the other answers are good. You need OS X and XCode. Since,at the moment you can't afford a Mac machine and seeing how the language of choice for both OS X and iOS is objective-c, you could start with learning C programming on windows. Objective-C is a superset of C. Knowing C Langauge will speed up your learning curve once you can afford to buy Mac. (or you might decide that C pointers are just too hard and save some money)

Also google how to create a hackintosh. I've seen couple articles on lifehacker on how to do it. It's not ideal but perhaps it would allow you to run XCode and create apps for iPhone or iPad.