Well, simple situation. I happen to be a software engineer who uses mostly Delphi and C# for software development. Delphi is great for desktop applications while C# is ideal combined with ASP.NET for web applications. However, I am considering to teach myself more about software development for the Mac. Xcode and Cocoa would be the environments to start with. Learning new languages is no problem for me!
However, before starting to write code on a Mac, I first need to buy one and they’re reasonable expensive so buying one is a decision that will take me a few months before I know which one I need. So, to help me right now, I would like to know the possibilities that I have to learn more about Mac development without the need for a Mac!
For example, does OS X work in a VMWare environment? Are the development tools also available for Windows? Is there a clear API overview of the OS X libraries?
Or should I first buy a Mac, play with it for a few weeks and then decide on how to develop software for it? In other words, should I start spending now, or in a few months? 🙂
Perhaps a macmini would be the best bet but failing that:
MacOSX in VMWare: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Vmware_how_to
Development tools for windows? I’d stick to XCode as it can compile multi-binary apps.
Here’s the clearest overview I can think of: http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/MacOSX/index.html
Hope this helps!