Thursday, March 6, 2008

iPhone SDK: Free Download

So, Apple made the SDK (Software Developer's Kit) for the iPhone and iPod Touch available to everyone for free. The only catch is that to use the SDK you need OSX and then, you know, to lower your standards to the point where you can tolerate using OSX. But the program itself is free. That's something.

It's up on apple.com or at least the link is. When I go there it says "Internet Explorer cannot display this page". But I am not on OSX. Because OSX sucks.

While I think it is keen that the SDK is available for free I am a bit upset that it can only be used on OSX. Not because I want to use it, mind you. Rather I'm upset that the only people who can write programs for the iPhone and iPod Touch are the effete fucks still belaboring their grudges about Windows ME while sitting in yuppie coffee shops being shitheads.

Admitedly, though, the majority of people who actually own iPhones and iPod Touches are those same effete yuppies.

And me.

Cause I like being able to browse the internet while I'm shitting.

9 comments:

Mike Lewis said...

does it surprise you the SDK is for the mac only (right now, this can change)

you can use windows to develop mac software.

_J_ said...

It doesn't surprise me. I'd just like for there to be a windows version.

Because it is not as if one is using the OS itself to code. Presumably the code for the iPhone program would be self-sufficient. So if I write a program that, say, kicks jews the code:

(if being = jew)
((then kick))

Is going to be code unto the program itself.

I don't see why OSX ought to be able to provide a window in which someone could type that but someone running Windows or Linux could not.

Granted, what makes that code function will probably be similar on the iPhone and Mac but not available on the Windows machine.

But they could simply provide it.

_J_ said...

There will be things required of iPhone / iPod Touch programs that are not available on a Windows System. But all of these things are found on the iPhone / iPod Touch. So presumably they could craft the SDK such that those programs are included with it as well and so allow it to run on Windows.

Is point.

Mike Lewis said...

i am not sure it is that simple.
kyle or adam would have to answer this question, but i don't know if windows can do Objective-C, which is the language that OSX and many apple programs are written in.

Mike Lewis said...

the point is - neither of us are programers, and i don't understand have the stuff they are talking about.

i just know that this seems Open enough that i will be getting an Iphone when my verizon contract ends

Unknown said...

Basically they would have to write a separate compiler for windows which one would need before they can run the software. A developers kit just tends to be libraries to aid in development. The key is being able to actually execute the code, which is where a compiler is necessary.

I don't know a whole lot about objective c. If it is open source, I can absolutely assure you there is a compiler written for it for windows. If it is proprietary and no compiler exists, then it is most likely the case that whomever owns the rights to it are being paid a hefty sum by mac or some other company to keep that compiler from being written.

Mike Lewis said...

i am faily sure that it is not open source.

From watching the press event video and reading some one the commentary, this SDK is, in fact, a set of plug ins and new libs for XCode. X-Code comes free with every mac since the move to Intel Chips.

_J_ said...

So given that people have used installer.app to unlock their iPhones and install user generated programs how is the SDK necessary?

Sure, the Apple SDK is official. But if people could write an NES Emulator for the iPhone without an SDK it does not seem to be that case that an SDK is necessary for software development.

Unless Apple is simply saying that they now want to make available something other people already figured out on their own.

I'm also trying to find out if the people who wrote programs for installer.app wrote them on OSX or if anyone was able to develop an iPhone application on Windows.

Cause I'm curious.

_J_ said...

zomg Objective-C

Can I use Objective-C in Windows?