How is freepascal's iphone development compares to this latest mono way of creating native iphone apps?

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/09/monotouch-drops-net-into-apples-walled-app-garden.ars

Reading the wiki it is not really a snap to set it up to be able to develop iphone apps.

Reading the wiki it is not really a snap to set it up to be able to develop iphone apps.

There's no ready-to-use solution to start developing iPhone apps.

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/09/monotouch-drops-net-into-apples-walled-app-garden.ars

"As MonoTouch necessitates static linking, users will need a commercial license. This will cost $999 per seat for the enterprise edition and $399 per seat for the personal edition and will include one year of updates. For additional details, you can refer to the MonoTouch website."

imho, it's cheaper to learn obj-c.

thanks,
dmitry

"$999 per seat for the enterprise edition ..."
objC and xcode are free. And at this price, I'll buy a macbook !!!

ABorka wrote

How is freepascal's iphone development compares to this latest mono way of creating native iphone apps? http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/09/monotouch-drops-net-into-apples-walled-app-garden.ars

We don't distribute an interface to most iPhone frameworks, in part because the iPhone SDK licensing agreement forbids distributing any derivative works. The Mono guys apparently ignore this and do distribute a bunch of XML files generated from the files included in the iPhone SDK. So keep in mind that you are violating Apple's licensing agreement if you use their stuff (although Apple doesn't seem to care much about that, given that a lot of applications based on an engine using the precursor of MonoTouch, namely Unity3D, are shipping already). At any point, an application you write using that stuff could probably be yanked from the Apple store though (unless the Mono people have a redistribution agreement with Apple, but I doubt that).

Reading the wiki it is not really a snap to set it up to be able to develop iphone apps.

a) install the package
b) create a new Xcode project using the provided template c) compile it/run it
d) see a nice spinning 3D FPC logo on your iPod/iPhone

(with an extra step between a) and b) if you're using the iPhone SDK 3.0/3.1, because of a bug in the iPhone SDK linker). This does not include solving any troubles you may have with getting the certificate mess sorted out, because that's identical for regular Objective-C projects.

All the other information on the wiki is background information (a lot of it just repeating stuff from Apple's website to avoid having to answer questions from answer people who didn't read that information).

Jonas

Here you're. Free iPhone dev tools: http://code.google.com/p/iphone-dev/

thanks,
dmitry

They also copied (pre-release) documentation from Apple onto their website:

I'm quite sure they have never asked permission to do so (nor would they get it). I would strongly recommend against trying to get Apple to take it down though, since would only have downsides (it won't help us get permission, it will hurt developers using MonoTouch, and it will hurt users who want the application being written using that framework).

Jonas

You guys are correct about the pricing, of course.

But $1K is peanuts if the finished application will be presented to 30-40 million people for download.
Considering what I read about obj C development... I think many people/companies would happily pay the price to have some nice language for development.

What is interesting that they seem to be able to really use a different language within the apple rules of iphone development.

But $1K is peanuts if the finished application will be presented to 30-40 million people for download.

I wonder what application can make 30-40 downloads? AFAIK there're less iPhones/Touches sold all over the world.

If Jonas is right about Apple's license violation. Apple can simply ban your C# application. And there's no other way to sell the application, but Apple Store.

Btw, according to Mono Touch docs, you have to pay for iPhone license anyway, so in the end, enterprise license costs $1.5K. Is it worthy to risk?

ObjC is a fine language. Of course, it would take some time to get used to it (and its syntax), but still, it's possible to create fine applications with it.
Some modern languages such as Ruby and Python are already provide bridges for the ObjC interface.

thanks,
dmitry

ABorka wrote

What is interesting that they seem to be able to really use a different language within the apple rules of iphone development.

Of course they can, there are no rules against that. You just cannot distribute any adapted headers (so you have to rely on install-time automatic conversion, if you want to play by the rules).

Jonas

Well, according to Apple the number is 50M :

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/09/10/apple-music-event-numbers-30m-iphones-20m-ipod-touches-75k-apps-18b-downloads/

dmitry boyarintsev wrote

> But $1K is peanuts if the finished application will be presented to 30-40 > million people for download. I wonder what application can make 30-40 downloads? AFAIK there're less iPhones/Touches sold all over the world.

ABorka wrote

I think many people/companies would happily pay the price to have some nice language for development.

This is an ARM system so it should support Mono. There is a Huge list of (free and commercial) languages that support MONO, including Object Pascal: Delphi Prim.

-Michael

This is an ARM system so it should support Mono. There is a Huge list of (free and commercial) languages that support MONO, including Object Pascal: Delphi Prism.

Let's see:

Individual developers (1 year):
* iPhone dev program: 100 USD
* Mono touch: 400 USD
* Delphi Prism: 500 USD
----
Total: 1000 USD

Enterprise development (1 year):
* iPhone dev program: 300 USD
* Mono touch: 1000 USD
* Delphi Prism: 1400 USD
----
Total: 2700 USD

So, it's still cheaper to learn objc :)

thanks,
dmitry