My buddy got an iPhone a week ago and like any respectable geek he immediately modded it to get other software running on it. I wasn't interested in one (even though I am a Mac guy) until I used his to play some simple games, browsed the web, and used a terminal app to goof around in bash.
This got me thinking. My buddy is primarily a Windows programmer and has just started getting his feet wet in Objective-C on his Mac. I don't know any C/C++ or Objective-C to program which is why I have a great time with BlitzMax. He is currently trying to get the development toolchain set up so he can also write apps for the iPhone.
We dug through the sources included with BlitzMax last night and it didn't look like it would be too extreme an undertaking to atleast add support for an ARM cpu target for OS X as an option, which the iPhone runs. Making it work? I have no idea... (He had a listing of some of the API for the iPhone and OS X and a lot of it is the same so we were both less worried about that part - even getting console apps to run would be a neat first step.)
Why bother?
1. We had a good time tearing through all this stuff.
2. The iPhone is a perfect target for the types of games and software that BlitzMax can produce.
3. Apple has taken an indifferent stance as far as software modding the iPhone, they do not openly object to it and aren't going to actively try to stop it though they won't officially support it either.
4. It doesn't look like it would be impossible to add support to BlitzMax to target the iPhone. (and In fact I would pay for an add on pack like this just like MaxGUI)
Thoughts? Legal concerns? Technical problems?
(And sorry if this has come up before.)
This got me thinking. My buddy is primarily a Windows programmer and has just started getting his feet wet in Objective-C on his Mac. I don't know any C/C++ or Objective-C to program which is why I have a great time with BlitzMax. He is currently trying to get the development toolchain set up so he can also write apps for the iPhone.
We dug through the sources included with BlitzMax last night and it didn't look like it would be too extreme an undertaking to atleast add support for an ARM cpu target for OS X as an option, which the iPhone runs. Making it work? I have no idea... (He had a listing of some of the API for the iPhone and OS X and a lot of it is the same so we were both less worried about that part - even getting console apps to run would be a neat first step.)
Why bother?
1. We had a good time tearing through all this stuff.
2. The iPhone is a perfect target for the types of games and software that BlitzMax can produce.
3. Apple has taken an indifferent stance as far as software modding the iPhone, they do not openly object to it and aren't going to actively try to stop it though they won't officially support it either.
4. It doesn't look like it would be impossible to add support to BlitzMax to target the iPhone. (and In fact I would pay for an add on pack like this just like MaxGUI)
Thoughts? Legal concerns? Technical problems?
(And sorry if this has come up before.)