iPhone APP development (3) ~ A sample APP

Xcode & iPhone Emulator

Tried a simple APP

As the first step, I tried to develop a simple iPhone APP on a remote desktop via a cloud service.

Here is the simple program I tried:

• A label it shows a title
• 2 buttons, one is to show a message "Hello World!", the other is clear the message.
• A text field to show the message

It is quite simple program.

The layout is pretty simple.  Just do "drag and drop" each "component".  Then just adjust locations, dimension, color and fonts.
Once layout is completed, then just write a simple program which is a response of clicking buttons.
Just open the layout and the swift program file next each other and clicking on a button to the source file, then the tool will generates a template.  Then just fill the template with a simple program.   (There are so many tutorial on the internet, I won't write how it works today.  But I will probably write overall process some time later).

As long as, people have some experience with Java, Javascript, Python and etc.  It won't be so difficult to write such a simple program in a few hours.

First impression of the cloud service

It is a little slow response, however it is not a big problem at all.  I think it is good enough this scale of program.  For a complicated program, it might be very smooth for each operation.....

Anyway, this service just USD $1 / hour, it is reasonable.   If people develop iPhone APP really seriously, it might be a good idea to buy a Mac.  It is probably good enough for most of cases.

A potential limitation is testing with a real iPhone.  I have not spent much time to see if there is any solutions.  But to use a real iPhone for testing, it requires to connect it through USB.  With the remote desktop, it might not possible.   However, it can be done with testing on an emulator and upload to the AppStore.

I will try a little complicate program.

It is probably easy to have your first app within a few days if people have some experience for programming.