iPhone development, anyone use appcelerator?

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Ampsonic

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I'm trying to teach myself how to write an iPhone app, and this seems to be the easiest way. My programming experience is 5+ years old and in c++ (very basic), so this javascript based method seems to be best.

Any thoughts? Anyone out there do any app development?
 
To write a native app, I thought you had to use ObjC, anyhow (not C++). Just learning ObjC is probably your best bet. Besides, and excuse to learn a new language is fun :D

However, if you're just wanting to "play around", you can create pretty slick looking websites using mobile jquery (http://jquerymobile.com/). With that, you can make some websites that look pretty good on android or iphone.

I admit that I barely looked at the appcelerator website, but I'm immediately suspicious that they make all these claims of "native". It sounds like a JS interpreter running inside of some framework. I don't see how that will ever get you an app that works as well as one written truly natively.
 
Apple changed the TOS to allow apps that have been created in another language and then converted to Objective-C into their app store. That opens the door for things like Unity3D, Appcelerator and Adobe's Flash converter.
 
There are a lot of good resources in iTunesU and Apples own documentation. If you are experienced with C++, it is not too difficult to learn Objective-C. You do not have to buy a book, but I've found this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321566157/ref=s9_qpp_gw_p14_ir05?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0DN8W9FCKJKVH8M2DQ8F&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 to be very useful explaining the ins and outs of the language. In my experience, it is still best to program apps in ObjC especially when it lets you use Interface Builder, a convenient way to create all the UI elements. Hope this helps
 
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That book looks quite good, looking through the reviews. After reading this book, were you ready to start writing apps for the iphone? IE: does it cover enough to actually create GUI interfaces and such?
 
I see that my local community college offers a course on iphone programming (the text book is the same book you are both recommending), I'm checking to see if my company will pay for me to take the class.
 
Ampsonic said:
That book looks quite good, looking through the reviews. After reading this book, were you ready to start writing apps for the iphone? IE: does it cover enough to actually create GUI interfaces and such?
Click to expand...

No, it covers Objective-C mainly. There's a chapter or two on iPhone dev. For iPhone specifically, you'd want these two:

Cocoa Programming:
http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Program...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292426718&sr=1-1

iPhone Programming:
http://www.amazon.com/iPhone-Programming-Ranch-Guide-Guides/dp/0321706242/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_c

I have the first one and really like it, but not the second.
 
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iPhone is the fastest growing and most popular platform for mobile development compared to other platforms. There are numerous mobile apps coming up every day that may help you to make iphone application development more innovative and interesting for the users.
 
Felipe said:
iPhone is the fastest growing and most popular platform for mobile development compared to other platforms.
Click to expand...
While different firms report different numbers the Internet agrees that Android is the fastest growing mobile platform. The only reason there are more apps at the iPhone app store is because 50% of them are clones of the first 50%, and 90% of the first 50% are total crap like fart app and whatever else. The iPhone is to mobile platforms what AOL is/was to Internet Service Providers, and where's AOL now?

The closed business model that sustained Apple is being toppled by the open Android which doesn't feature the draconian app store and doesn't take 30% from each app sale.

So I don't know where you get your info, but reality disagrees with you.
 
ive written an app in appcelerator. It certainly has it's hiccups but they've come a LONG way in the last 6 months. If you can join their professional program it will help you as well

If you're a web developer it's a great simple learning curve vs more native stuff.
 
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