Compile on iOS

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Created Feb ’20

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Hello, I try to create mobile version my IDE for iPhone and iPad's and I have a question: "Can I compile code on iPhone and/or iPad"?

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Feb ’20

Creating an IDE for iOS is going to be a challenge. There are three key challenges:

Having your IDE build and install an entirely new app isn’t really feasible. While it might be feasible to build the app, there’s no supported way for one app to install another.
Running the code you generate in a subprocess isn’t feasible because iOS does not allow an app to create an arbitrary subprocess.
Running native code within you app isn’t feasible because third-party apps can’t allocate memory that can be executed.

The only option I can see is for your IDE to generate code that it then executes with an interpreter. There are apps in the App Store that do this today (for example, I’m a huge fan of Pythonista).

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!”
Apple Developer Relations, Developer Technical Support, Core OS/Hardware

let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com"

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