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PhoneGap offers a nice solution for writing cross-platform apps with HTML5 and JavaScript.

But I would like to use Interface Builder for the UI, and just write all the controller code in Javascript instead of Objective-C (with of course the option to mix and match and especially call into any Objective-C libraries that I may need).

Is there a framework for this? Something akin to what CamelBones does for Perl.

The reason for wanting to do this is that the non-UI code can ideally be written in JavaScript to be reused for the web version, an possible future Android PhoneGap version, and the server-side (node.js).

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  • You could try Cappuccino or SproutCore, though that's really targeted toward building for the web using Cocoa-like tech. My advice would be just to suck it up and use Objective-C. It isn't really all that bad ;) Commented Jan 13, 2011 at 0:12
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    Coincidentally, there's an O'Reilly book titled Learning the iOS SDK for JavaScript Programmers, oreilly.com/catalog/0636920010265 but it has nothing to do with writing apps in JavaScript and everything to do with making the jump to Obj-C ;) Commented Jan 13, 2011 at 0:15
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    I'm not gonna buy that book then... Commented Jan 13, 2011 at 0:30
  • and that O'Reilly book is not such a great read, IMHO - its a very long-winded with not enough sample code. I eventually stopped reading it and just watched youtube tutorials to get a grasp of objective-c Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 2:27

5 Answers 5

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You could try using Appcelerator's Titanium product. It lets you write native iPhone apps in HTML+Javascript.

Check it out here. I haven't used it, but it seems like what you want.

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3 Comments

This does look like it can make use of native UI components. No mention of Interface Builder, though, and it still seems to run in a WebView. I guess if there is a good enough abstraction from the HTML/CSS so that I do not have to touch that, it would work (I really do not want to code my UI, I want a builder).
Here is a comparison between Titanium and PhoneGap (even though the accepted answer appears to be wrong): stackoverflow.com/questions/1482586/…
Apparently, they switched from using a WebView to something more native recently, so it probably is very close to what I was looking for: developer.appcelerator.com/question/71/…
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The other possibility is to use iOS Javascript Bridge to write an app in Javascript.

https://github.com/coolbloke1324/iOS-JavaScript-Bridge

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1 Comment

That looks cool. "Your JS is contained and executed inside a custom build of JavaScriptCore so that no private API calls are made". Too bad you have to ship your own copy of that library. I wonder how big it is. Would be nice of Apple to make it a public API.
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You can try JSCocoa. It lets you write Cocoa apps in JavaScript, like a bridge.

It works on a Mac and iPhone. It also works with Interface Builder while you develop.

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1 Comment

Says it works on the iPhone Simulator, waiting for a port of libffi: code.google.com/p/jscocoa/wiki/iPhone
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Here's an article that mentions a few alternatives to using Objective-C

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Just stumbled upon this (old) question but wanted to contribute by mentioning NibleKit (http://www.nimblekit.com/index.php) that let's you build native iOS apps with just HTML & Javascript.

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I found that same link but on the current date (October 02, 2014) it has the following notice: "NimbleKit was acquired by Sencha inc, selling licenses is stopped until further notice".

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