Create iPhone apps with .NET |
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By Patrick Meader, Contributor
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.NET
developers can now target both the iPhone and the Apple App Store. On
September 14, Novell announced the availability of MonoTouch 1.0, a
software-developer kit (SDK) that enables developers to create iPhone-
and iPod Touch-based apps that leverage the Mono versions of .NET.
According to Novell, MonoTouch is a static compiler that turns .NET
executables and libraries into native iPhone applications. Note that
your MonoTouch iPhone apps do not ship with a JIT or interpreter, but
as native code. This adheres to the requirements of the Apple iPhone
Developer program, which proscribes developers from distributing
scripting engines or JIT compilers. In addition to Mono's core Base
Class Libraries, MonoTouch also ships with bindings for various iPhone
APIs to allow developers to create native iPhone applications with
Mono. Another significant feature: XCode integration enables developers
to test their applications on a device or in Apple's iPhone Simulator.
It also enables developers to send applications to the Apple Apps Store
for distribution.
One of the key advantages of MonoTouch is that it lets you use C#
instead of C or Objective-C, simplifying the effort required to create
apps for the iPhone platform, especially for those already familiar
with the .NET Framework.
You should be aware of one important caveat: You cannot create apps
for the iPhone on Windows-based machines. Instead, MonoTouch requires a
Mac and Apple's iPhone SDK to test on its emulator and deploy on the
device. Also, deploying iPhone apps requires that you sign up for an
iPhone Developer account. You can sign up for a free Apple iPhone Developer account
. Apple's site notes that you must be using an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X Leopard.
You can find more information on MonoTouch
, including articles about the product and sample code
. You can learn more about the Mono Project
, which Novell sponsors. Finally, you can read up on what .NET features
MonoTouch supports; you can also read up on what .NET features aren't supported in MonoTouch
.
MonoTouch comes in two editions: Personal and Enterprise. A
single-developer Enterprise license retails for $999, and it includes a
one-year subscription that includes maintenance and updates. You can
also purchase a five-developer Enterprise Edition license for $3999 per
year. Finally, if you are interested only in developing iPhone or iPod
Touch apps for distribution on the Apple App Store, you can purchase a
non-transferable Personal license for $399. The personal license also
comes with one year of MonoTouch updates and the ability to distribute
apps built with MonoTouch on the Apple App Store. You can acquire
either edition or learn
more about both.