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# Language: Making an app for any platform has a learning curve. If you know Objective-C, learning iOS programming is an easy jump. If, as in your case, you kn

# Language: Making an app for any platform has a learning curve. If you know Objective-C, learning iOS programming is an easy jump. If, as in your case, you know HTML+javascript, making a PhoneGap / Firefox OS app will be an easy jump. If you learned Java in school, Android will be an easy jump. If you know none of these they're all going to be approximately equally difficult. # Cost: iOS - $600 Mac Mini + $300 iPod Touch + $99 developer account Android - ~$350 PC + $300 Nexus 4 Firefox OS - ~$350 PC + $300 Samsung Galaxy S2 (?) iOS is a bit pricier to get started on. No question. # Provisioning and Certificates: Yeah these are some annoying bullshit. I agree 100% on this point.

bad_user 14y ago
It's not the price of a Mac Mini that I care about. I already have a Mac Mini. The thing is, my workstation is Ubuntu. I feel comfortable with it, all my tools are here within reach, its setup is streamlined to get out of my way, etc... To develop for Windows or for iOS, I have to go out of my way and use another environment in which I don't feel comfortable. I don't get why Microsoft and Apple don't release cross-platform SDKs. I don't really care about XCode or Visual Studio, I just want a bunch of tools with which I can compile and publish projects from the command-line. Actually, I only care about publishing on my own personal phone and I don't really need an emulator either, as my own phone can substitute for that (provided it has a way to get some logs and stack-traces back). Apple makes this especially difficult, since you can't (legally) run OS X in a virtual machine (this was true last time I checked and the VMWare instance I managed to setup was extremely unstable). So that's why I brought up the OS X argument. Monetary cost is not the only cost. Google did a smart thing with Android, because even though you have to endure Eclipse, at least it doesn't pull you out of the environment you use daily. Also, developing with HTML and Javascript is even more kickass, because you can start mocking / messing around with just a browser like Chrome or Firefox with Firebug installed or something similar.

bad_user 14y ago

It's not the price of a Mac Mini that I care about. I already have a Mac Mini. The thing is, my workstation is Ubuntu. I feel comfortable with it, all my tools are here within reach, its setup is streamlined to get out of my way, etc... To develop for Windows or for iOS, I have to go out of my way and use another environment in which I don't feel comfortable. I don't get why Microsoft and Apple don't release cross-platform SDKs. I don't really care about XCode or Visual Studio, I just want a bunch of tools with which I can compile and publish projects from the command-line. Actually, I only care about publishing on my own personal phone and I don't really need an emulator either, as my own phone can substitute for that (provided it has a way to get some logs and stack-traces back). Apple makes this especially difficult, since you can't (legally) run OS X in a virtual machine (this was true last time I checked and the VMWare instance I managed to setup was extremely unstable). So that's why I brought up the OS X argument. Monetary cost is not the only cost. Google did a smart thing with Android, because even though you have to endure Eclipse, at least it doesn't pull you out of the environment you use daily. Also, developing with HTML and Javascript is even more kickass, because you can start mocking / messing around with just a browser like Chrome or Firefox with Firebug installed or something similar.