Python/pyobjC Apps on iPhone now a possibility?

[J Kenneth King]

Dr Mephesto <dnhkng at googlemail.com> writes:

> I have been following the discussion about python and pyobjc on the
> iphone, and it seemed to me that the app-store rules prohibited
> embedded interpreters; so, python apps are a no-no.
>
> But now it seems that the Rubyists have the option that we don't. It
> seems there is a company, http://rhomobile.com/home, that has an SDK
> that allows ruby programs to be embedded together with an interpreter
> in an app! More interesting is the fact that several of these hybrid
> apps seem to have been accepted on the itunes app store.
>
> Here's a quote from a representative, found on this blog:
> http://www.rubyinside.com/rhodes-develop-full-iphone-rim-and-symbian-apps-using-ruby-1475.html
>
> "...First of all, to clarify, we precompile all framework and app code
> down to Ruby 1.9 VM bytecode. This yields great performance
> advantages. We also disable eval and other dynamic execution aspects
> of Ruby. In the end, on all platforms your app gets compiled with our
> framework all into one single executable, indistinguishable from any
> other executable.
>
> But even if we were shipping a fullon Ruby interpreter without
> compiling to bytecode and leaving dynamic evaluation enabled (as has
> been well remarked in the blogosphere by now) App Store rule 3.3.2
> does not disallow interpreters but only downloading code to be
> executed by the interpreter."
>
> So, the question is, can the same thing be done for Python apps?

I love Python and all, but it'd be apt to ask, what's the point?

The iPhone is running on what? A 400Mhz ARM processor? Resources on the
device are already limited; running your program on top of an embedded
Python interpreter would only be adding pressure to the constraints;
even if it was an optimized interpreter.

Might as well just suck it up and learn C/Objective-C .. it's really not
that hard. It took me about a day to pick up the language and another
two or three to finagle with the libraries.