What programming languages can one use to develop iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (iOS) applications?

Question

What programming languages can one use to develop iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (iOS) applications?

Also are there plans in the future to expand the amount of programm

Answer 1

What programming languages can one use to develop iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (iOs) applications?

Ruby, Python, Lua, Scheme, Lisp, Smalltalk, C#, Haskell, ActionScript, JavaScript, Objective-C, C++, C. That's just the ones that pop into my head right now. I'm sure there's hundreds if not thousands of others. (E.g. there's no reason why you couldn't use any .NET language with MonoTouch, i.e. VB.NET, F#, Nemerle, Boo, Cobra, ...)

Also are there plans in the future to expand the amount of programming languages that iOs will support?

Sure. Pretty much every programming language community on this planet is currently working on getting their language to run on iOS.

Also, a lot of people are working on programming languages specifically designed for touch devices such as iPod touch, iPhone and iPad, e.g. Phil Mercurio's Thyrd language.

Answer 2

This might be an old thread, but I'd like to mention Appcelerator Titanium, which allows anyone versed in HTML5/JavaScript/CSS to develop iOS applications.

Answer 3

You can use "smart BASIC" programming language. It is a genuine but very advanced BASIC language with all its power and simplicity. Using its free SDK, BASIC code can be easily published as a standalone App Store application. There are many apps in App Store, written in "smart BASIC" programming language.

Answer 4

Apple lifted the restrictions on non-Objective C/C/C++ apps -- you just can't load code that isn't in the app bundle.

MonoTouch lets you use .NET languages -- C# is directly supported, but if you have Windows, you can make assemblies in any .NET language and use it.

There are rumors that Apple is going to support other languages directly -- I keep hearing ruby, but they are just rumors.

I think Lua is being used for game logic on a lot of apps.

EDIT (in 2018): Generally you can use any language that you can get to compile for iOS or even install language interpreters. The main thing you cannot do is load code from the Internet that wasn't in the app bundle.

People do this all of the time anyway (see React Native apps loading JavaScript from servers), but, technically, it's not allowed. The main thing that will get you attention from Apple if you make some kind of App Store that loads whole App-like things.

EDIT (in 2020): from @Pylot in comments: I know this is a long time ago, but now at least technically you can load code that isn’t embedded in the app, as you can write with JavaScript using the webview. Not staying your answer is wrong or anything, I definitely agree with you. but I was looking for something and found this post on the way. Figured if anyone sees this it might help them out.