[FEATURE] Support iOS

[josxha]

Feature Description

Currently iOS is not supported. I have currently not the required Apple hardware to add support for it myself.
The code generation by pigeon is already in place. What is missing is the "glue" between MapLibre Native on iOS and the generated code and the rendering through a platform view.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

• https://docs.flutter.dev/platform-integration/ios/platform-views
• https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-native/blob/main/platform/ios/CHANGELOG.md

[Zverik]

Just a comment on hardware: instead of buying a macbook, I'm renting a server at MacInCloud. Not very expensive, and I've been building and publishing my Flutter apps with it for a year with almost no issues. So maybe it could help.

[josxha]

Thanks for the suggestion @Zverik! I thought about a mac rental too but buying a mac is in my opinion more beneficial in the long term.

One of the best options I see is a mac mini. Current price is around 600.- for a new one.
If I compare this to the MacinCloud pricing its either

• about 600 hours to 150 days in the Pay-As-You-Go plan
• 24 months in the Managed Server plan
  Now, let's say we would sell the old mac for 450.- (lower end) after just one year. This means that we would be better of if we used it for at least 150 hours in that year (comparing it with the hourly based Pay-As-You-Go plan). Of course we are not counting any interest here and I assume that the required time on a mac doesn't exceeds 4 hours for each day but this sounds reasonable to me for testing, and code reviews.

Of couse that's a rough calculation, some points would lower the cost, some increase costs. Speaking of me however, I currently prefer to buy a cheaper mac. (:

[itheamc]

Hello @josxha, have you begun implementing the iOS part for this plugin?

[josxha]

@itheamc You have a perfect timing! 😄 I almost completed the requirement analysis for ios and the actual implementation will start at the end of this week.