The experience of searching for and finding the SDK, and a beginners guide couldn’t be easier.  A google search provided immediate results for the 6.1 SDK refresh, and a search of a well known community (MSDN) provided plenty of information to get started writing apps using the .net development platform.  Microsoft Windows is still one of the most widely used operating systems, making it an easily accessible native platform.

WineHQ has a write-up on installing Visual Studio .NET 2005 Express natively in Linux, but is mostly rated as garbage.  I suggest using the same technique here as installing the Apple SDK – grab a copy of windows and install it in a VM session.  Running a Mac you could easily run this using Parallels or VMware Fusion.

Victory at long last.    Long ago I left the Apple IIGS for Windows 95 and hadn’t looked back since. This handy little guide brought me home.  I named my VM Sex Panther, because 60 percent of the time, it works every time.  That’s about the success rate I’ve had with these hacked together distros for Leopard.

In addition to VMWare’s 6.5 Workstation offering a fantastic test environment, the best ISO out there I’ve found to date is the iDeneb.  The customization options are commented so that even the average person can make sense of what they’re clicking.  Success rates may vary, but I now have my development environment set up.  If you plan on undertaking a similar project, I highly suggest either paying to become an apple developer for $500, buying a license for Leopard (even though this is against the EULA), or taking the easy way out and spending the $600 on a Mac mini.  Next on the docket is a review of the training videos/materials available through apple.

After some further research my journey has led me back to windows or linux.  I have a PC, and I should stick with what it runs best right?

There are a few options out there for people that want to utilize a PC to develop for the iPhone, but I can almost guarantee that none of the apps developed using these tools will see the light of day in the Apple Appstore.  Regardless this might be a good starting point for learning.

I’m starting to see VMware as my savior as much as I’ve been trying to avoid virtualization.  More on that in a later.

Read the rest of this entry »

The hype for the 3.0 version of the iPhone OS got me motivated this week to do something I haven’t done in a long time – write code.  I’ve been rockin’ an iPhone 3g since last summer and have loved/hated it like any user familiar with the missing features and poor memory management of the 2.x firmware.

3.0 feels like the second coming, and I’m hoping with all the new APIs available out there, the development community can come up with some fantastic stuff.  So a starting point. Not too difficult to find is the noobs guide to enlisting in the apple development community.  Good beginning.

Read the rest of this entry »