Filling the Language Gap in App Development

[Michael Essany]

Image via PortableHole.com


Despite the booming business of iPhone apps, many developers who favor Apple products have been limited by the lack of support for Microsoft's C# and other .NET programming languages.

MonoTouch, however, should help fill the language gap. According to this morning's Seattle PI blogs:

The Mono Project, sponsored by open-source leader Novell, has released MonoTouch – a software development kit that allows applications written in .NET to run on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

This, of course, is a huge development. Although naysayers are already griping about how MonoTouch only runs on Macs, there is no shortage of excited developers eager to get to work on many projects for which language barriers had been longstanding problems. In a relatively short period of time, we could see exponential growth in iPhone and iPod Touch apps as a result of MonoTouch. Even without the ability to use .NET, the App Store still has more than 76,000 applications in its arsenal. Imagine the growth possible with Microsoft's programming language now included among developers' tools.

Many developers consider C#, and the other .NET languages, to be simpler and easier to use than C and Objective-C. But .NET runtimes require scripting engines or Just-In-Time (JIT) compilers, which are prohibited by Apple. MonoTouch, however, takes the app's code, translates it, and delivers only native code to the iPhone's application programming interface (API), according to Novell's announcement.

Incredibly, it was only two months ago when Microsoft put C# documentation and .NET standards under its Community Promise. Since then, the folks at Novell were able to jump on the newfound momentum and, as we've seen, prepare MonoTouch for a September release. It also removes previous doubt that there was no way around Apple's policy banning the inclusion of mechanisms that "enable execution of arbitrary third-party code."

The ability to write iPhone apps in .NET also allows developers to use programs or snippets of code they have already created. Potentially, the workers at Apple who approve software for the App Store could soon see a deluge of new submissions.

Best of all, no need to worry about bugs. MonoTouch supports the "iPhone simulator" which lets developers test software before it actually reaches the iPod or iPhone.

The base version of MonoTouch has been priced at $399. The enterprise version is $999 for one license (per year) and exponentially higher for multiple licenses.

[FURBY8704]

now thats pricy >_<

[vedavis]

Hoo Boy. More farting apps and tip calculators

[JustinPizzle]

Hoo Boy. More farting apps and tip calculators

theres a fat kid in my musicionship class who always plays fart sounds on his RAZR..
makes me wanna punch him in the face

[rwin84]

Interesting...

[revsteve]

I remember when open source once meant free....

[awesomeSlayer]

$999 for an enterprise version license. Geez, what is up with that? For an IPHONE SIMULATOR?!

[mdc929]

wow thats bonkers