Temporary iOS Development on Windows

Question

I am currently designing and planning an app that I intend to release for iPhone and iPad. I don't currently have a Mac, so I really have no way to actually publish the app, but I don't really want to buy a Mac either just for the development of the app.

Is there any way that I can write (and maybe even test) the app on Windows, then, once I have a finished product, buy a Mac or borrow a friends Mac to publish it.

I know that there is no way to publish to the Apple App Store without a Mac, but I was wondering if there is a way that I could develop and test the app (in Objective-C) on Windows.

Know Objective-C and the XML used to create NIBs so well that you can do it without fail all in one go, then move it to a friend's Mac and compile, test and distribute through there. It's not impossible, and you'll save lots... — Ry-, Jul 15 '11 at 17:29
I may consider doing this. I can usually write rather large programs and algorithms in Java in one go without attempting to debug until the end. Usually I'll end up with a few dozen errors, but they're always tiny things that take an hour total to fix at the most. I've never used Objective-C, but I pick up new languages extremely quickly. — Nick Anderegg, Jul 15 '11 at 17:47
Be careful: That's what I thought when I started Objective-C :) — Ry-, Jul 15 '11 at 17:59
duplicate of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4533847/alternatives-for-ios-development-under-windows and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/113547/iphone-development-on-windows — ThatGuyInIT, Jul 15 '11 at 19:50

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:27

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I was wondering if there is a way that I could develop and test the app (in Objective-C) on Windows.

No, there is not. XCode is required for iOS development, and it is only available on Mac OS.

answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 10 '14 at 00:55

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Yes you can!!! Use virtual box. Search some guides on "lifehacker.com" about getting mac on virtual box. It's what I always used before getting a mac.

answered Jun 10 '14 at 00:55

user3720533

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:29

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You could get a second, cheap hard drive, and install OS X on the hard drive to make your computer into a Hackintosh. You'd need a copy of OS X, and a willingness to break the TOS for the operating system.

answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:29

Chris Gregg

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@DarkDust -- true, although lots of Windows PCs can be converted to Hackintoshes without any hardware changes. – Chris Gregg Jul 15 '11 at 17:33

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:30

This is actually a very frequently asked question, and I'm afraid the answer is no, you cannot do iOS development on Windows.

Back in the iPhone OS 2.0 days there was a cross-compiling framework that did accomplish this but it's abandoned and doesn't work for years now and AFAIK nobody bothered to make it work again (it's a lot of work and requires intimate knowledge about cross-compiling and hunts a constantly moving target).

The usual recommendation is to buy a used Mac Mini since they're cheaply available on sites like eBay.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:32

duskwuff is right to a point... XCode itself is not actually requred in fact there is IDEA's AppCode IDE. Unfortunately, that only runs on OS X. The best thing you can do (other than get a cheap Mac) is install GCC on windows or a Linux VM compile from the command line, as GCC can compile Objective-C. However, that still is not a good solution since you won't have Access to Cocoa Touch and all those calls will error out as undefined or undeclared....

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:35

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No, you can't. If your going to buy a Mac to publish in the future, why not just buy it now?

answered Jul 15 '11 at 17:35

Benjamin Mayo

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 15 '11 at 19:33

You can use OS X in a virtual machine on your windows system. I have read few articles on the internet how to do it using VirtualBox for that (google for it). Even if it's not officially supported by VirtualBox, it's possible. This breaks the TOC for OS X, and you need to buy a copy as well, but VirtualBox is free.

Temporary iOS Development on Windows

7 Answers7