CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cxcodemacos
Tommy B.
Tommy B.

Reputation: 3639

OS X Development without using XCode / Objective-C?

I'd like to build a email client prototype for OS X. For personal reasons, I'd like to use something else than Objective-C and XCode to build it (I wouldn't mind using XCode only to compile the code).

If you wonder what are the reasons, let's say that I built several iOS apps and one OS X app using XCode and Objective-C and I always disliked both the IDE and the language. I like more Java-like/C#-like languages to build software apps.

I heard of some wrapper like a Ruby one but I'd like advice from someone who built an app that way and if this is a viable way of working.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 604

Answers (4)

nemelianov
nemelianov

Reputation: 909

For C# you can use "Mono" or for Java there are nice IDE's: IntelliJ IDEA 12 or NetBeans 7.3

Upvotes: 0

Markus
Markus

Reputation: 538

If you like C# and Visual Studio you can use the Xamarin framework to build native applications for iOS, Mac and Android. (Xamarin comes with a license fee)

Upvotes: 0

uchuugaka
uchuugaka

Reputation: 12782

Other options than RubyMotion include non-standard GUI elements generally and will result in an app that offers a poor user experience, an inconsistent user experience, poor performance or a combination of those. These include Java, any language with QT or Tk bindings etc.

Objective-C is the lingua Franca of Mac app development for the user space. The frameworks are built with it in mind. RubyMotion (and MacRuby ) work because of how closely Ruby's object model matches Objective-C.

A successful app will be one that embraces Objective-C, C and possibly Objective-C++ and C++ and definitely Xcode. Anything else will be in addition to that or a series of crappy compromises.

Upvotes: 1

dpassage
dpassage

Reputation: 5453

I would suggest you look into RubyMotion. It just this month added support for OS X, but has been available for iOS for a year or so, and there are many apps already available in the App Store built with it. There's also a decent community of developers who have done a lot of work to build libraries that make the native Objective-C API's seem more Ruby-like.

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions