Re: [Pyobjc-dev] How good could be pyObjc on the iphone?
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From: Ronald O. <ron...@ma...> - 2008-03-15 17:15:05
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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 |