Re: [Pyobjc-dev] How good could be pyObjc on the iphone?

[Ronald O. <ron...@ma...>]

On 13 Mar, 2008, at 23:14, mario alejandro wrote:

> I'm a developer with 10+ of experience in developing with  
> Delphi, .NET, Python, FoxPro and other small langauges. I have 2  
> years working in the windows mobile plataform and with the release  
> of the iphone sdk I wish port my actual solution (for take orders)  
> to iphone.
>
> Despite I understan the c-derivates languages and looking at Objc-c  
> is not that bad as C++, as you can see on my language list I prefer  
> run away anything that smell as C ;)
>
> I know pyObjc is already ported to iPhone. Let's imagine that the  
> Apple licence restriction allow to use python here.... how good can  
> be use pyObjc instead of go native?
>
>

The rest message was written without access to an actual iPhone or  
Touch, and hence not necessarily based on reality :-).


> I don't need a explanation on how great is python, I know. I wonder  
> about:
>
> - I can acces the specific abilities of iphone as the contact,  
> photos, accelerometer & seudo-gps?

A PyObjC port would allow access to all Objective-C API's, just like  
on the desktop. So I guess the anwser to your question is "yes".

>
> - Is a nightmare the deployment or is a pice of cake? The end-user  
> need install complex unix-like things, install outside the python  
> interpreter, mess with the iphone configuration or jailbreak it?

That depends on what Apple will allow. If Apple allows PyObjC  
applications on the appstore deployment would be easy.  Even with a  
jail-broken phone it should be possible to tweak py2app to build  
standalone .app bundles that can be installed using Installer.app.

But please not that this does require some enginering work: py2app is  
currently not able to do cross-builds.

>
> - I lost the debugging & tracing or is full suported?

I don't understand the question.

A question you don't specifically ask is: what are the advantages and  
disadvantages of using Python instead of Objective-C on the iPhone.

Let's start with two major-ish disadvantages: you're .app bundle will  
be relatively large because you will have to embed Python (or you have  
to use a jailbroken device and a package manager application). A  
second disadvantage is raw speed: Python code is slower than C code,  
and this tends to be more noticable on slow devices like an iPhone.   
That said, we've deployed hybrid Python/C++ applications on iPaq  
devices (C++ GUI, Python for everything else) and those are perfectly  
usable on devices slower than an iPhone.

The major advantages of Python are the availability of loads of useful  
libraries and a very rapid development process due to having very high  
level language. Those advantages are just as useful on a mobile device  
as on the desktop and server. This should at least allow you to  
prototype your application in Python.

Ronald