Could BlitzMax create iPhone Apps?

BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/Could BlitzMax create iPhone Apps?

Arowx(Posted 2009) [#1]
I know it sounds like a silly question but what is the technical feasability of this happening Mark ;o) ?

BlitzMax already works for the Mac, could it build apps for the iPhone?

or

Could blitzmax coded apps be translated to code for the iPhone?


ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2009) [#2]
There's other threads about this - in general, we'd need a compiler to convert Blitz code into something that can be compiled for the iPhone, such as ObjectiveC. You could write a sourcecode converter perhaps, to convert the blitz code to some C dirivitive, but bear in mind that a lot of Blitz itself is written IN blitz and would also have to be converted.

It would be cool, as we know.


Arowx(Posted 2009) [#3]
Have I got this right Blitzmax uses GCC under MinGW to compile and build apps, doesn't the Mac/iPhone XCode use the same compiler but different targets e.g. Intel CPU / Arm CPU?

I realise that iPhone does not have DirectX but does have a variety of OpenGL?

Just wondering if it's technically feasible?


Warpy(Posted 2009) [#4]
Blitz uses its own compiler to compile blitzmax code. The MinGW requirement is for compiling modules written in C. The blitzmax compiler can only produce x86 executables, not ARM.


Arowx(Posted 2009) [#5]
Yes bcc.exe but I it also uses FASM.exe the Flat Assembler I believe to build the exe's once it's parsed and translated the BlitzMax code.

But there is FASMARM which is a cross assembler addon for FASM which targets the ARM processor?! ;o)


N(Posted 2009) [#6]
How about I make this simple: the answer is no.


Arowx(Posted 2009) [#7]
@Nillum I hope your not in charge of R&D at Blitz Labs!

I understand that it is currently not an option however I'm interested in the theoretical possibility, as it would appear to be feasable?


Brucey(Posted 2009) [#8]
The most likely solution is that which ImaginaryHuman mentions - whereby BlitzMax code is compiled into platform-neutral C or similar...

Not likely to happen very soon though, I'd think.


ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2009) [#9]
Or write a BlitzMax to C sourcecode converter capable of converting every single piece of Blitz sourcecode.


slenkar(Posted 2009) [#10]
I think this should be the next step for BRL, people tend to buy the system that compiles to as many platforms as possible


JoshK(Posted 2009) [#11]
I would be interested in this, but who knows how feasible it is.


ziggy(Posted 2009) [#12]
I think it would be a very nice tool to have a compiler for the jasmin assembler. I think this would open blitzmax to all sort of devices. I'm getting a lot of documentation on this area, to evaluate if this could be done, it doesn't look too complicated. the hard thing would be to convert the existing modules to Java or jasmin-max.


popcade(Posted 2009) [#13]
It's possible if Mark decided to do it, he just have no time/resource to do it.

Give BRL a few million dollars and this might happen soon.


taumel(Posted 2009) [#14]
I would buy an BlitzMax iPhone publishing option but beside of the translation it obviously needs some more work as new commands beeing introduced for iPhone hardware related stuff like for instance multitouch.

BlitzMax+max3D+iPhone publishing option would be my BRL dreampack.


ImaginaryHuman(Posted 2009) [#15]
Yeah you'd have to have like an iPhone module for extra functionality. I'm not sure but also doesn't iPhone use OpenGL-ES, rather than plain OpenGL?

Anyway, I would definitely be very excited if there was a way to still code in BlitzMax but have it compile and work on an iPhone and I expect many other people would too. The iPhone game/app market is still very young and there is still a huge amount of room to even make good money on simple remakes of classic games, yet alone breaking new ground. Now is the time!