[pmarwa]

I've read the posts on this forum that provide information on how to get started with developing apps using C# etc. but am still a little unsure on how to get started. I've been coding extensively in C# and now want to use the Windows platform to code apps for the IPhone. I understand that I'll need to learn Objective C# to be able to do this (i.e if I want to stay with a "familiar" programming language). What type of tools do I need to write/compile my iPhone application and test it? I'm using Windows XP Professional and I do have access to Visual Studio 2005.
Also, will it be easier to use Mono and if so - what are the tools I'd need there?

I'd appreciate any pointers in this direction.
Thanks so much for your time,
Priya

[truongvinht]

Sry for telling you. but currenlty is it not possible to create apps on OS Windows or Linux, because you ll need the development tool for iPhone, which is only available for Mac OS 10.5 or higher. So try to get mac first before you ll try.

[NetMage]

It depends on what type of application you want to build.

If you want to develop App Store distributable applications than you must use the official Apple SDK. Apple only supports development using Mac OS X 10.5 on Intel processors. Also, distribution requires acceptance into their $99/year developer program.

If you want to develop jailbreak applications, than you can use the toolchain.
The toolchain for firmware 1.x worked on Mac OS X, Linux or Windows (using Cygwin). The new toolchain also works on the iPhone directly (!), and you can download the packages from Cydia.

Saurik has some fairly intense instructions here on upgrading the toolchain to 2.x:
Upgrading the iPhone Toolchain - Jay Freeman (saurik)

Jonathon Zdziarski is distributing a Mac OS X binary of the new toolchain here:
Index of /iphone

You can distribute your jailbreak applications via Cydia using someone like MMi as a host.

Also, the language of the iPhone (and Mac OS X) is Objective-C or Objective-C++, which is not entirely similar to C# at all - while C# took some ideas from C++, it also (unfortunately, IMHO) took concepts from Delphi which put it somewhere between C++ and Objective-C on my object-oriented language spectrum:
Smalltalk - C++ - C# - Delphi - Objective-C - C