Comments on: REALbasic on iPhone Debate

By: Bob Keeney

Bob Keeney — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:14:05 +0000

New today is this new except from the iPhone 4.0 SDK:

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

Here, they are explicitly saying what language is allowed! Wow. That seems awful restrictive.

By: Christian Schmitz

Christian Schmitz — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:41:24 +0000

Well, to sign you need your private developer key and the provision profile. I have for example 3 private keys for 3 different accounts and I need to choose the right one for each project to sign it correctly. But I’m not sure whether it is a good idea to upload those keys to a server somewhere. Does Apple allow/deny that? And why should RS not simply say: iPhone development is Mac only and please install Xcode first?

By: Andy Dent

Andy Dent — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:15:20 +0000

It would be a useful addition to the Enterprise edition to allow someone to sign iPhone apps on others’ behalf. This could then become a consulting activity where you could find some other provider of the service rather than having to rely on RS running an inhouse server.

By: Geoff Perlman

Geoff Perlman — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:31:07 +0000

If REAL Software disappeared and REAL Studio wasn’t acquired by some other company, having to find access to a Mac so that you can install your certificate would be the least of your problems. The fact is, the code signing utility that Apple provides runs only on a Mac. I’m imagining that we could provide a Mac server as a convenience to Windows users. I would rather not have to do that but unfortunately, this is one issue that may not have a better, more feasible solution.

By: Aaron Ballman

Aaron Ballman — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:26:24 +0000

@Geoff — are you intending for the iPhone offerings to mostly target the hobbyist market? I ask because there are some serious flaws I would worry about as a professional. Servers go down, companies disappear, etc — expecting me to rely on a third party for basic functionality any time I wish to release an application is a high risk. And telling me “well, just go buy a Mac if you’re worried about that” is an awfully expensive hidden cost, and doesn’t jive at all with REALbasic’s long history of allowing me to write code on one platform and run it on another.

By: Geoff Perlman

Geoff Perlman — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:35:11 +0000

There’s no need to sign the app on a Windows machine. We would easily provide a service where the user could upload their code signing certificate and app to a Mac at REAL which would then sign the app via Apple’s code signing utility and then download it again. Others have solved this problem. The article also mentions running the iPhone SDK on a non Apple-branded machine. But a REAL Studio user would not be using the iPhone SDK at all. They would be using our framework so that’s not an issue either.

By: Bob Keeney

Bob Keeney — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:26:49 +0000

Lest anyone forget that Apple guards access to their kingdom very closely, I suggest you read the article at http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/linux/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224000202.

The relevant quote: “It would be a technical violation of the Apple SDK to [generate and sign an iPhone binary] on a Windows machine,…”

I believe RS would have to jump through the same problems *if* they made iPhone support cross-platform. Since this is all mental gyrations at this point it doesn’t really matter.

By: Mike Young

Mike Young — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:31:23 +0000

I’ve built several real estate analytical apps in RB. Owing to the number of input fields, the “real estate” on the iPhone/iPod Touch is too small. On the iPad, however, we have the perfect platform for my apps. I am too old to learn the languages needed to reprogram my apps for the iPad but would like an easy way to migrate from standalone RB to iPad. That would be a home run for me.

By: Keith DeLong

Keith DeLong — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:28:26 +0000

@Bob Keeney I would not be at all opposed if the solution was Mac OS X only.

By: jjb

jjb — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:03:29 +0000

“Do you think RS should use *EXISTING* development resources to make REALbasic support the iPhone.”

My understanding of the latest REAL blog entry is that the forthcoming switch to using LLVM is that amongst its benefits is to provide a VM to native compiler for the iphone.
Also, (and I’m guessing) having no longer to maintain the 2 backend compilers will free up some resources for other uses
I’d like to read your take on the implications of the switch to the LLVM.