Category: Cell Phone Talk
Does anyone know if a totally blind person would be able to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad? I'm a little interested in getting into this stuff, so this is why I was wondering.
I've been doing some research along these lines, and haven't found anything conclusive yet. Start your research with c and coaco
Short answer yes, long answer its complicated.
First of all, you *have* to have a mac and I'm pretty sure that it will have to be an intel mac, so you won't be able to pick up one of the cheaper g4's or g5's on ebay. xCode does function on a hackintosh if you want to go that root, but this can get quite involved, especially if your trying to get osx running on an existing machine as opposed to spec'ing out a build with the intention of running osx on it.
If you haven't done any object orientated programming before, you probably shouldn't attempt objective c. Start off with java or php then work your way up.
xCode features something called interface builder which is where you make your gui's. This is inaccessible, so you have to code them yourself. This presents issues since you have no way of knowing where abouts to put things without drawing something, compiling, putting it on your device and then finding out where it is. There was talk a couple of months ago about an indian development company that if given an interface spec would be able to make a gui fairly cheaply, but if you know enough about your interface that you can write up a spec that someone else can follow, you'd probably be able to write it yourself anyway.
As far as I know all of the programming parts of xCode are accessible excluding interface builder, but the ios simulater doesn't support vo at the moment.
Standard practice is to compile something, then run an included simulator which will emulate your code running on an i device; this is completely inaccessible.
I don't hold a developer account with apple, so I can't vouch for how accurate this next bit is:
Essentially, springboard (The thing that looks after your home screens) checks to see if an application is signed before it will install. Funnily enough, the only way to sign your application is if you give apple some money, $100.
The one exception to this is if you are a developer. Apple give you some form of exceptions file that you can import into iTunes which inturn does something to springboard which will let apps that are assigned to your developer id function on your phone for testing purposes before you publish them to the store. However, I'm unsure if you have to pay apple before they will let you do this. If so, there would be absolutely no way of testing your application unless you are jailbroken? without paying apple.
Its something I've been meaning to do for a while now, I have a few app ideas all of which wouldn't be that hard if my understanding of objective c is correct, but the only intel macs that I have are desktops which makes transporting them between home and uni problematic. The next time a semmy good spec laptop comes my way, I'll see how easy installing osx will be on it and take things from there.
Oh yeah, I know you have to have a Mac. And yes, I'm sure you'd have to have an Intel Mac as well. I was just curious about the app development side of things, because I'm going to get a Mac, and I was thinking of getting into the development side of iOS when I get it.