iOS Question B4i Development System Requirements

[kackle123]

I suspect this has been answered before but I could not find the answer here nor elsewhere. What are the development-machine's system requirements for B4i when developing for modern iOS mobile devices? I have access to a 15-year old MacBook Pro, for example. I read about (but don't understand) Anywhere Software hosting builds somehow, or must I buy a new Mac?

 

[Erel]

B4i IDE is similar to the other B4X IDEs and it runs on Windows. It needs to connect to a Mac for the compilation.
You have two options:
1. Use a local Mac with Xcode 15 (will not work with your old Mac).
2. Use our hosted builder.

Note that you need an Apple developer account. It costs $99 per year.

Learn iOS App Development on Windows | B4i

B4i allows you to easily develop native iOS (iPad and iPhone) apps. B4i follows the same concepts as B4A, allowing you to reuse most of the code and build apps for both Android and iOS. This is the only development tool that allows you to develop native iOS apps without a local Mac computer.

www.b4x.com

 

[aeric]

You also need an iOS device, i.e iPhone or iPad with the iOS version you want to support. Older devices do not support latest version of iOS.

 

[hatzisn]

I suspect this has been answered before but I could not find the answer here nor elsewhere. What are the development-machine's system requirements for B4i when developing for modern iOS mobile devices? I have access to a 15-year old MacBook Pro, for example. I read about (but don't understand) Anywhere Software hosting builds somehow, or must I buy a new Mac?

I think a 15 years old Mac will not do because you will have to install latest xcode which requires recent not to say latest Mac os and newer OSs do not install to older machines. I know there is a workaround to install latest Mac os on older machines but I am not sure if it will work with the Keychain. Why do you care though? Hosted builder is the best option in every aspect because you save money from buying a new Mac and you also save money from work hours spent on tuning the device due to xcode upgrades which are more than frequent. I do not believe that there is any advantage advocating for the acquisition of a new Mac.

 

[kackle123]

Thank you for your replies. Clearly I didn't understand the "Mac builder" concept--by your posts, I assume one writes on his Windows machine running B4i and then "builds" the executables via Anywhere Software's on-line hosted builder tool. Yes, that sounds less expensive than a new Mac. What are the disadvantages to using such a system?

If I target a slightly older iOS version, can the newer devices run my app?

Erel, thanks for your reply; I don't know how difficult it would be, but having a rough idea of IDE system requirements on your website would help newbies like me instead of us bothering you on the forum.

 

[Erel]

What are the disadvantages to using such a system?

You cannot use the simulator.
There is a limit to the app size but it is quite large (at least 50mb).

If I target a slightly older iOS version, can the newer devices run my app?

Yes.