[estimator7292]

I recently started learning how to do iOS apps for work and the short answer is: you don't.

Apple seemingly wants all apps to be static jpegs that never need to connect to any data local or remote, and never do any processing. If you want to do something in the background so that your user can multitask, too damn bad.

You can run in the background, for a non-deterministic amount of time. If you do that, iOS nags your user to make it stop. If you access radios, iOS nags your user to disable it.

It's honestly insane. I don't know why or how anyone develops for this platform.

Not to mention the fact that you have to spend $5k minimum just to put hello world on the screen. I can't believe that apple gets away with forcing you to buy a goddamn Mac to complile a program.

[n8cpdx]

You can get a brand new Mac for < $600

People develop for iOS because iOS users spend more money. End of story.

[homebrewer]

Depends on where you live. I haven't seen one for less than $1000, and that's for a five-year old model soon going out of support. Seems like a waste of money.

[ErneX]

No Mac Minis there?

[post-it]

I've never felt nagged. Every time I get one of those popups, which isn't too often, I think "neat, good to know."

It's inconvenient that apps can't do long-running operations in the background outside of a few areas, but that's a design feature of the platform. Users of iOS are choosing to give up the ability to run torrent clients or whatever in exchange for knowing that an app isn't going to destroy their battery life in the background.

[babypuncher]

> If you do that, iOS nags your user to make it stop. If you access radios, iOS nags your user to disable it.

These are features, because we can't trust developers to be smart about how they implement these. In fact, we can't even trust them not to be malicious about it. User nags keep the dveloper honest on a device where battery life and all-day availability is arguably of utmost importance.

> you have to spend $5k minimum just to put hello world on the screen.

Now that's just nonsense.

[ErneX]

You don’t have to spend 5K, cmon.