I’ve non-googled this, but everything in the results is so ‘slop’ that it hurts to read. The only halfway helpful result was apple’s page for developers, but I was curious if one has to use their xcode/swift environments.

  • imadethis@fedinsfw.appOPEnglish
    2·
    9 days ago

    Got it, thanks. I guess I’m off to install swift and get an xcode ‘replacement’ (looks like xtool is the top result when I looked?) to start playing with. AND the language is installed by installing an installer manager first ? Grumble, grumble I already have a package manager, harrumph.

    I shouldn’t be surprised that apple would nearly require a person to be using a mac, but somehow it still is frustrating that being on linux will make this harder.

    You have any advice on the swift/xcode thing with linux (arch variants, specifically, if that helps narrow it down)?

    • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      9 days ago

      Heh… yaah welcome to apple. Uh, to be honest you probably want a mac. Back when I was playing in that sandbox I invested in a second hand mac mini… it was less than ideal but not unbearable. At the time developing off a Mac meant no access to apple SDK and the iOS simulator, the SDK has all the good device integrations and the simulator is very useful for testing before waiting for a full build on testflight. The path you’re treading, based on my experiences, strikes me as a difficult one but maybe someone can chime if the outside-mac environment has improved.

      Given your constraint I suggest leaning more towards react native, you can debug/run that locally in linux, and check out subscribing to something like expo / esd to package, sign and send the app to testflight. Could be cheaper short term than buying a mac.

      I haven’t used this approach myself, but that is the angle I’d consider without the hardware. Orr like others have suggested start with building a PWA and access as a website.

      Edit - to be clear I’m not trying to entirely discourage the approach you found. Give it a solid 4 hour attempt and see how it works out then keep going if you get a useful result, that’s basically app development.