#2085 More compiler backends!

mcandre Fri 18 Jan 2013

For Android and Windows RT developers, Fantom seems like a great crossplatform language to use. Could we add an Objective C backend as well, for iOS/MacOSX users?

I know there are bridges between Java and ObjC, and Mono and ObjC, but it's a major pain in the ass to build a system of any size for iOS/MacOSX using indirect methods. We'd like to avoid these convoluted build systems, so I beg you, please consider producing a direct compiler from Fantom code to ObjC code for Apple users.

Cheers, Andrew Pennebaker

brian Sat 19 Jan 2013

I think ObjC would definitely be the next target. The great thing about Fantom is that it was designed from ground up to be portable in this way - it is part of the language's DNA. But adding another backend target that works really well is a pretty huge effort. Its taken years of work to get JavaScript solid and that is driven by actual use in production. We would need similar effort for targeting iOS. I'd love to see someone step up and tackle that. But I can see a future we might desire that functionality ourselves and do it under the SkyFoundry umbrella.

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