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Thank you for your time.

I am completely lost on how to setup and actually USE j2objc. The "getting started" portion of the website, explains absolutely nothing to someone like me.

and by "like me"...I mean...someone who has never even opened an apple computer before...ever. I have no idea what

$ j2objc *.java

means...let alone where to execute the command. I was really hoping to get my java based app working for ios ...but I literally have ZERO clue on where to even start.

Things I have done: 1) got an apple computer (and tried to avoid throwing into the fire and sacrificing it to Cthulu)

2) downloaded Xcode

3) downloaded and I think I installed j2objc, but when I click on it ...some commands appear on the screen but nothing else even shows up, and I cant type anything.

Is there a picture book I could follow that uses small words..and treats me like the idiot that I am?

Because right now I can tell you it seems easier to just code the whole thing over again.

Thanks.

1 Answers1

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I'm sorry you're having so many difficulties. j2objc is unfortunately an advanced software engineering tool, not something targeted for new developers (we all started as new developers, so that's not meant as an insult). For example, the "$ j2objc *.java" reference assumes the reader knows how to use shells and command-lines (the $ is the shell prompt).

j2objc is best suited for what are called "fat clients apps", which are apps that have a lot of non-UI code locally on the client. For example, Inbox by Google and Google Docs both use j2objc, and they're both very big apps with thousands of lines of code shared across their iOS, Android and web apps. Those apps took many engineering hours to create and maintain. They are also designed so that shareable code is separated from platform-specific code, like what's written UI and networking.

You have a Mac, which is the only thing actually required for developing iOS applications. I recommend that you get a good tutorial on iOS development, such as "iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide", and work through its examples. After that, you'll be steps ahead of many other iOS developers, and will probably find it faster to rewrite your Android app from scratch, since it's probably not a big, fat app. :-)

tball
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