It's certainly possible to develop on a Windows machine, in fact, my first application was exclusively developed on the old Dell Precision I had at the time :)
There are three routes;
- Install OSx86 (aka iATKOS / Kalyway) on a second partition/disk and dual boot.
- Run Mac OS X Server under VMWare (Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, read the update below).
- Use Delphi XE4 and the macincloud service. This is a commercial toolset, but the component and lib support is growing.
The first route requires modifying (or using a pre-modified) image of Leopard that can be installed on a regular PC. This is not as hard as you would think, although your success/effort ratio will depend upon how closely the hardware in your PC matches that in Mac hardware - e.g. if you're running a Core 2 Duo on an Intel Motherboard, with an NVidia graphics card you are laughing. If you're running an AMD machine or something without SSE3 it gets a little more involved.
If you purchase (or already own) a version of Leopard then this is a gray area since the Leopard EULA states you may only run it on an "Apple Labeled" machine. As many point out if you stick an Apple sticker on your PC you're probably covered.
The second option is more costly. The EULA for the workstation version of Leopard prevents it from being run under emulation and as a result, there's no support in VMWare for this. Leopard server, however, CAN be run under emulation and can be used for desktop purposes. Leopard server and VMWare are expensive, however.
If you're interested in option 1) I would suggest starting at Insanelymac and reading the OSx86 sections.
I do think you should consider whether the time you will invest is going to be worth the money you will save though. It was for me because I enjoy tinkering with this type of stuff and I started during the early iPhone betas, months before their App Store became available.
Alternatively, you could pick up a low-spec Mac Mini from eBay. You don't need much horsepower to run the SDK and you can always sell it on later if you decide to stop development or buy a better Mac.
Update: You cannot create a Mac OS X Client virtual machine for OS X 10.6 and earlier. Apple does not allow these Client OSes to be virtualized. With Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, Apple has changed its licensing agreement in regards to virtualization. Source: VMWare KnowledgeBase
If you want the display dimensions in pixels you can use getSize
:
Display display = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
Point size = new Point();
display.getSize(size);
int width = size.x;
int height = size.y;
If you're not in an Activity
you can get the default Display
via WINDOW_SERVICE
:
WindowManager wm = (WindowManager) context.getSystemService(Context.WINDOW_SERVICE);
Display display = wm.getDefaultDisplay();
If you are in a fragment and want to acomplish this just use Activity.WindowManager (in Xamarin.Android) or getActivity().getWindowManager() (in java).
Before getSize
was introduced (in API level 13), you could use the getWidth
and getHeight
methods that are now deprecated:
Display display = getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay();
int width = display.getWidth(); // deprecated
int height = display.getHeight(); // deprecated
For the use case, you're describing, however, a margin/padding in the layout seems more appropriate.
Another way is: DisplayMetrics
A structure describing general information about a display, such as its size, density, and font scaling. To access the DisplayMetrics members, initialize an object like this:
DisplayMetrics metrics = new DisplayMetrics();
getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay().getMetrics(metrics);
We can use widthPixels
to get information for:
"The absolute width of the display in pixels."
Example:
Log.d("ApplicationTagName", "Display width in px is " + metrics.widthPixels);
API level 30 update
final WindowMetrics metrics = windowManager.getCurrentWindowMetrics();
// Gets all excluding insets
final WindowInsets windowInsets = metrics.getWindowInsets();
Insets insets = windowInsets.getInsetsIgnoreVisibility(WindowInsets.Type.navigationBars()
| WindowInsets.Type.displayCutout());
int insetsWidth = insets.right + insets.left;
int insetsHeight = insets.top + insets.bottom;
// Legacy size that Display#getSize reports
final Rect bounds = metrics.getBounds();
final Size legacySize = new Size(bounds.width() - insetsWidth,
bounds.height() - insetsHeight);
Best Solution
[[UIScreen mainScreen] bounds]
as there seems to be no specific API for that. As of iOS 8 there are also size classes that abstract screen sizes into regular or compact vertically and horizontally and are recommended way to adapt your UI.