Objective-C Environment Setup For Ubuntu-Linux

Question

I don\'t have the Mac machine for ios development. Now I am in a learning stage and want to start the ios development on Linux. So is it possible to run the Objective-C Code on

Answer 1

Unfortunately, in order to develop for iOS you will need OS X on your machine. An alternative involves creating a virtual machine on your computer and installing OS X and XCode on it. I've heard this solution works perfectly fine for people provided their computer can handle it.

More information on creating a "hackintosh" may be found here.

Answer 2

Sure. LLVM/Clang is available as a package for most Linux distributions and is a great environment for learning Objective-C.

However, you're going to hit a wall very quickly. Namely, the iOS (or OS X) development stack -- the frameworks, APIs, and tools -- aren't available for Linux and, thus, you're out of luck the moment you want to do anything graphical.

There are projects -- GNUStep, Cocotron -- that are an implementation of a Cocoa-like set of APIs (derived directly from OpenStep) and those are great to learn, but you still won't be writing real iOS / OS X apps.

Answer 3

Yes it is possible in Ubuntu to Run the Objective-C code in the following way:

In Ubuntu, Install GNU Objective-C Compiler and the Gnu-step Development Libraries with the following command::

sudo apt-get –y install gobjc gnustep gnustep-devel

Now type the Program given below and save the file with .m extension.

For Example say, hello.m

// 'Hello World' Program in Objective-C
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    NSLog (@"Hello, World!");
    [pool drain];
    return 0;
}

Now Compile the Program with the following command:

gcc $(gnustep-config --objc-flags) -o hello hello.m $(gnustep-config --base-libs)

Or you could write this sample Makefile:

CC := gcc
GNUSTEP_LIBS = $(shell gnustep-config --base-libs)
GNUSTEP_FLAGS = $(shell gnustep-config --objc-flags)

.PHONY = clean all

PROGS = hello class_hello

all: $(PROGS)

%.o: %.m
    $(CC) $(GNUSTEP_FLAGS) -c $^

hello: hello.o
    $(CC) -o $@ $^ $(GNUSTEP_LIBS)

clean: 
    rm $(PROGS) *.o

And run:

make

Now Run the executable with the following command:

./hello

OUTPUT -> 2014-11-14 15:47:32.628 hello[2786] Hello, World!

The Format of the Output is something like this-

<DATE> <TIME> <NAME  OF THE EXECUTABLE[NUMBER]> <ACTUAL OUTPUT>