First Status Update

Greetings,

I have spent the past couple evenings configuring/installing Airplay.  It piggybacks Microsoft's visual studio C++, and builds for any phone/processor I imagine I'd need.  It will also build a deployable file that you can upload to your phone.  So far so good.

I began by loading their sample 'Hello, World!' application into Visual C++ express, and glancing over the code.  Simple enough, at a high level only a couple functions, screen changes colour after a timer expires.  Did a debug build for the ARM processor, and a window pops up that displays the screen, along with a panel of menus that lets me rotate the phone, and add other inputs that are hard to control with just a mouse.

Now the discouraging part.  I wanted to deploy to my iPhone, so I began the deploy process and encounter a substantial error.  I am missing my iPhone developer's license.  To be entirely fair, I knew this would be a problem if I developed in Xcode, that you can use the simulator only until you pay apple to become a developer.  I had hoped that AirPlay would be a work-around, and alas it is not.

Currently I feel as though I'm at a crossroads.  I see three options:

1. I continue developing with Airplay.  This has the advantage of  letting me develop on my PC.  This has the disadvantage that I'll be developing with C++.  Not a huge disadvantage, however I was excited to use ObjectiveC, and hoped that it would leverage more of my embedded C experience.  I am also concerned about writing code for a Mac product without using a Mac IDE.
2. I switch to Xcode, and 'borrow' my fiancee's older macbook.  This has the converse advantages and disadvantages of the above with the added disadvantage that the macbook's battery is EOL and only holds half an hour of charge.  I would need to share time on the power supply or go out and buy one I can dedicate.
3. The third option is that I lose the iPhone as a destination and just try writing the game for the PC.  Then the language options open up a little I could try it in Java or C++, and try using OpenGL for graphics, something else I'd been curious to play with. 

I am torn.  Two paths keep the iPhone as the end goal, which would ultimately be a cool deliverable.  I'd just need to loosen up and pay Mac for the privilege to write code for them.  On the other hand, I could extend my programming skills into something that may be more immediately useful for my career. On the other hand, my goal (2 days ago) was to write the iPhone app and I'd hate to so hastily abandon it.  On the other hand, keeping the project in the PC might bring down the scope and increase the odds of successful completion.  On the other hand...