Catch-up (Pt. 3 of 4): An Aside on Developing for Apple

I know this post was supposed to be about the tools I need to learn for iOS development, but I'm going to rant a little instead.
I've developed for iOS before, but in a slightly indirect way. When you say that you've developed for iOS before to an experienced developer, the first thing that comes to their mind is Xcode. However, I developed in Unity. Unity then compiles the project into an Xcode project, and then I just have to build my project through there. None of the actual development process needed to be done in Xcode.
Just from that experience, I didn't like Xcode, and I certainly didn't like developing for Apple. First of all, you must have a computer running MacOS to use Xcode, and Apple only allows project built with Xcode to be run on their devices. So, there's money-grab #1. On top of that, to publish to the App Store, you have to purchase a license that you have to renew every year. The cost of the license? $100. It may not seem like a lot to an established developer, but as an indie developer, all I see when I look at developing for Apple is a half-bitten piece of fruit pummeling the indie developer, making his/her life as difficult as possible.

Anyway, with that digression, the next post will be on the tools I'll need to learn for iOS development.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Example App is Coming Along

I've been working on an example mobile app for Android at AdAdapted. The goal is to build an app that looks like a "real-life" one specific to the developer audience they target, and then integrate their SDK. During integration, I'll be documenting my experience and noting where I run into issues. I'll also be including the solutions to those issues. The guide should serve the company as a means to see more of the experience a developer who isn't really familiar with their tools would have. The app's looking good, and it's a ton of fun to work on!
Read more

App Nearly Complete--Tutorials?

After a few days' work, the example app is nearly ready. The SDK is fully integrated and the only work that remains is cleaning up some layout issues. Other than that, the SDK was fairly easy to work with. I may be making a video tutorial series detailing the process for integrating the SDK for developers who are more visual learners. I know that when I'm learning a new toolset and how to work it into my own work flow, I really like to find videos by the developer detailing the steps. While the integration was pretty easy, I can see spots where people may have questions, and I know that I messed up. I spent about an hour and a half integrating the wrong SDK, only to realize the mistake when I noticed the guide I was following didn't give any steps on how to actually display the ads. Regardless, it's been a lot of fun designing and building the app, even if it is just a simple example app. I hope that I'll be ready to start making the tutorial series by this Frid
Read more

Integration Complete, Videos Next

I just recently completely finished the integration of Addit, and it's a pretty cool tool. Items can be added to my app externally and all looks good, so now I can move onto the tutorial videos. Hopefully I'll be able to move forward on them. I'll be making about two as a kind of demo of what to expect of them, and then I'll sit down with some other members of the company and they'll decide if they'll be useful. If the videos are a no-go, I suppose I'll turn my eyes toward working on an FAQ to help developers with the process and their problems. Ideally, though, I would like to accomplish that goal with videos, since I personally find videos pretty helpful in learning anything software-related. I know that when I learn a new toolset, the first thing I look for are tutorial videos.
Read more