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
Isn't it even more easy just to use this:
public override bool ShouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation (UIInterfaceOrientation toInterfaceOrientation)
{
// Return true for supported orientations
return ((toInterfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientation.PortraitUpsideDown) && (toInterfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientation.Portrait));
}
This way it will only autorotate when the device is in landscape mode (both the landscapes)
Best Solution
Historic answer only. Spectacularly out of date.
Please note that this answer is now hugely out of date/
This answer is only a historical curiosity.
Exciting news! As discovered by Andrew below, this problem has been fixed by Apple in 4.0+.
It would appear it is NO longer necessary to force the size of the view on every view, and the specific serious problem of landscape "only working the first time" has been resolved.
As of April 2011, it is not possible to test or even build anything below 4.0, so the question is purely a historic curiosity. It's incredible how much trouble it caused developers for so long!
Here is the original discussion and solution. This is utterly irrelevant now, as these systems are not even operable.
It is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to make this work fully -- there are at least three problems/bugs at play.
try this .. interface builder landscape design
Note in particular that where it says "and you need to use shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation properly everywhere" it means everywhere, all your fullscreen views.
Hope it helps in this nightmare!
An important reminder of the ADDITIONAL well-known problem at hand here: if you are trying to swap between MORE THAN ONE view (all landscape), IT SIMPLY DOES NOT WORK. It is essential to remember this or you will waste days on the problem. It is literally NOT POSSIBLE. It is the biggest open, known, bug on the iOS platform. There is literally no way to make the hardware make the second view you load, be landscape. The annoying but simple workaround, and what you must do, is have a trivial master UIViewController that does nothing but sit there and let you swap between your views.
In other words, in iOS because of a major know bug:
You can do that only once. Later, if you try to remove happyThing.view, and instead put in there newThing.view, IT DOES NOT WORK - AND THAT'S THAT. The machine will never rotate the view to landscape. There is no trick fix, even Apple cannot make it work. The workaround you must adopt is having an overall UIViewController that simply sits there and just holds your various views (happyThing, newThing, etc). Hope it helps!