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I'm a novice java programmer. I need to make some application with OpenGL. I think an iPhone app would be cool, but I only have a week.

Is this doable? Could I learn openGl and iphone programming and make a crude app in a week?

If yes, where should I starT?

genpfault
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Mak Hn
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  • What's the Visual Studio tag for? I don't think you can use VS to develop for iPhone, can you? – LarsH Nov 04 '10 at 14:45
  • Only you could determine if you can achieve something within a week. However, there are plenty of resources here on getting started with OpenGL ES, such as [Want to display a 3D model on the iPhone: how to get started?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/413919/want-to-display-a-3d-model-on-the-iphone-how-to-get-started) and [Learning OpenGL ES 1.x](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72288/learning-opengl-es-1-x) – Brad Larson Nov 04 '10 at 16:31

3 Answers3

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Start here:

http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/05/opengl-es-from-ground-up-table-of.html

Its fun!

Ben
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  • I'd be interested in your experience with getting started on iPhone dev, with regard to my answer. Did you have a similar experience at all? – LarsH Nov 03 '10 at 22:11
  • @LarsH, no not really, but I came from a C/C++ background so I don't know if that might have helped. In many respects you don't need to learn much about UIKit or Objective-C to do opengl on the iPhone since XCode can do that bit for you. After that its all C and OpenGLES. – Ben Nov 04 '10 at 15:05
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OpenGL: Probably, yes. iPhone development: no!

If you only have a week, don't waste it trying to get up to speed on iPhone dev! I have a friend and colleague who sunk months of time and over $1000 into becoming iPhone-proficient, and ultimately had to cut his losses and quit that line of work. He said Apple and the iPhone development community is just not that friendly to developers; people have more of a guarded, competitive attitude.

I myself tried Android dev, and was able to get their SDK and emulator set up, running and modifying a sample app, in a few hours. When I tried the same with Apple, I ran into signups, fees, and ultimately, being unable to get further because I don't have a Mac, and you can't develop for iPhone on Linux or Windows. (Maybe you have a Mac?) Another big barrier was that, IIRC, you can't run a program that you develop, on an actual iPhone, unless you first pay $99 to join the Apple developers program.

It's not my desire to start a flamewar... no doubt some have been very happy with iPhone development. My wife has an iPod Touch and I would love to write apps for it. I'm just relating my and my friend's experiences, and I would recommend only trying to invest time in iPhone dev when you have plenty of time to spend on it.

The main point is, if you want to learn OpenGL and do something simple but cool, within a week, that's a reasonable goal, and can be very rewarding. Try to combine that with learning iPhone and you are likely to be very frustrated.

The safest bet would be to first learn some OpenGL on a platform you're familiar with, whether that's MacOS, Windows, or whatever. See these SO questions:

Then once you've got that working, if you're especially interested in mobile devices, Android is more open (and free) to get involved with, and uses Java (iPhone uses objective-C). For that you might try here:

Community
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LarsH
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  • While we might differ in our opinions regarding how difficult it is to get up and running on various platforms, I take exception to your friend's comments about the iPhone development community. The Cocoa developer community has been one of the most welcoming groups I've ever been associated with. When the developers of Twitter and Tweetie, two nominal competitors, regularly share code and help each other out, I think that stands counter to the "guarded, competitive" attitude you allege. Even here, you can see how helpful many people are in the answers in the [iphone] tag. – Brad Larson Nov 04 '10 at 16:38
  • @Brad, I'm glad to hear that my friend's experience doesn't represent the whole picture. I have no doubt that the SO spirit remains strong in the [iphone] tag as elsewhere. – LarsH Nov 04 '10 at 22:04
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Like any platform, you could probably easily cut and paste some sample code together and get something crude going in no time at all. I would suggest that if you have the tools in place that even a week is too long and a day is all that you need.

Anything beyond a simple and crude app will take a bit more time though. Dipping your toes in the ocean requires little effort. Being a world class swimmer takes a lot of training and determination.

No one in particular
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