I want to develop aps for iOS only on my PC. I have a Mac Mini, late 2018 with xcode loaded. What tool(s) will I need on my PC to develop the apps?
I first thought visual studio and xamarin, but it needs the mac version of VS and that appears to be ending in August of 2024.
iPhone 15 Pro Max, iOS 17
PickyBikers wrote:
The Mac mini is slow and only has 128gb storage, so I might try running macOS in a virtual machine on my Alien Aurora. That would allow me to use the Apple tools.
Apple macOS software licensing disallows its use on non-Apple platforms.
You can likely use an external SSD with that Mac mini.
Here is how to: Use an external SSD as your startup disk with your iMac or Mac mini - Apple Community
If you want suggestions for third-party and cross-platform tools and frameworks for developing iOS and iPadOS apps on Windows, this probably isn’t the best spot to ask those. It’s also probably not the best spot for support for those tools. Most (all?) of those will have recommended places for seeking support and asking questions, too. Or frameworks such as Meta React or alternatives too, for instance.
The Apple approach and tooling and documentation and code-signing and app store uploads all uses Xcode on macOS, or uses Playgrounds on iPad or macOS. Not tooling for Windows or for other operating systems.
Support for Microsoft Visual Studio for Mac is ending in August, 2024. Visual Studio for Mac is based on MonoDevelop, and is unrelated to Windows Studio for Windows. Support for Visual Studio Code for Mac continues. Microsoft is seemingly migrating users from Visual Studio for Mac to Visual Studio Code, if you want that.
If not Visual Studio Code for macOS, JetBrains might have something available here, too.
Or use your existing Mac and Xcode, or Playgrounds.
But again, folks around here tend to know the Apple tools. Not the third-party and Windows tools.
If you are serious about iOS development, stick with the Mac and Xcode. There is just not a better option out there. Of course, as MrHoffman said, this is coming from an iOS developer that has used those tools for many years to create native apps. It is a big hurdle to learn Swift along with the provided frameworks without having to worry about any problems implementing them on a different platform and the Developer Forums that are used to resolve any issues will not be much help for you..
The Mac mini is slow and only has 128gb storage, so I might try running macOS in a virtual machine on my Alien Aurora. That would allow me to use the Apple tools.
Tools to develop apps for IOS on a PC
