I've played around with what seems like ever alternative framework under the sun (Titanium, Rhodes, PhoneGap, MonoTouch, Corona) and have been pretty frustrated with how clunky they usually feel. However with everything its claiming and the decent price point I'm toying with purchasing site unseen...just wish I could try it for a few hours first.
RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
21–30 of 250 posts
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#22nice, but where is the advantage over just using objc? the hard part of coding for iOS isn't objc, it's learning how to use all the API's.
Having been part of the private beta I can tell you that it's a huge time saver. Objective-C is nice be ruby is much more expressive, you can use the same API with much less code, you can skip XCode altogether and use your favorite editor, ... I can't express properly how awesome it is, really.
In the Ars article, I noticed the author mentions you can't use XCode's layout tools.
In practice, how big a problem is that?
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#23This is really awesome, but I found some bad news in the FAQ: > Because RubyMotion implements a dialect of Ruby that is statically compiled, regular Ruby gems will not work in RubyMotion. We provide documentation which describes how to architect gems to work with RubyMotion.
Anyone who has done any serious MacRuby development would already tell you that normal Ruby gems aren't usually the best way to go (slow, don't use Objective-C frameworks).
I can see where this could be a problem if you typically just glue gems together to make products, but if you're used to rolling your own solutions it isn't a big deal.
Sucks, but not a show stopper.
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#24Are there any example apps in the wild that were made using RubyMotion?
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#25nice, but where is the advantage over just using objc? the hard part of coding for iOS isn't objc, it's learning how to use all the API's.
I agree, but many young developers have C phobia and somehow seem not to be able to grasp C based languages.
Or they've been spoiled by certain language features and it seems unbearable to go backwards.
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#26Will apps created using this have any problems getting approved with App Store?
At the bottom of the features page
>RubyMotion is 100% compliant with Apple's App Store policies. Your code is compiled ahead-of-time, never interpreted, and you access the entire set of iOS public APIs. At the end, a RubyMotion app looks pretty much the same as an Objective-C app.
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#27This is really awesome, but I found some bad news in the FAQ: > Because RubyMotion implements a dialect of Ruby that is statically compiled, regular Ruby gems will not work in RubyMotion. We provide documentation which describes how to architect gems to work with RubyMotion.
On the upside, CocoaPods support is integrated with RubyMotion. Sure, there is a whole world of useful Ruby gems, but, generally speaking, the libraries you'll find in CocoaPods have been developed specifically for iOS.
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having been part of the private beta I can tell you that it's a huge time saver. Objective-C is nice be ruby is much more expressive, you can use the same API with much less code, you can skip XCode altogether and use your favorite editor, ... I can't express properly how awesome it is, really.
In the Ars article, I noticed the author mentions you can't use XCode's layout tools. In practice, how big a problem is that?
I tried a bit, technically it works but currently you have to compile your xib to nib manually using ibtool.
That may have changed tough because I dropped the xib as I didn't really needed it.
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#29Will apps created using this have any problems getting approved with App Store?
No. From the FAQ (http://www.rubymotion.com/support/#faq):
"Applications submitted to the App Store must conform to the Review Guidelines dictated by Apple. RubyMotion implements a dialect of Ruby that conforms to those rules. RubyMotion apps are fully compiled, do not download or interpret code and are using public iOS APIs through the exact same machinery as regular Objective-C apps."
Re: RubyMotion - Ruby for iOS
#30This is from Laurent Sansonetti, the original author and long time maintainer of MacRuby. It doesn't say that anywhere until after you buy it, which they should really change since that made me go from "Uh, did some random guys just take MacRuby's code and hack in some extra stuff to sell it?" to "Holy crap so THIS is what he's been working on!"
Some impressive stuff here, check out the getting started video at around 4:30 The 'positioning a label' live from the simulator command line is way cool. http://www.rubymotion.com/getting-started/