10 ms·

As someone who has only dabbled with Obj. C but has 10+ years of traditional web dev experience this looks v. attractive. What am I losing by not learning Obj.C

by edbloom 14y ago

As someone who has only dabbled with Obj. C but has 10+ years of traditional web dev experience this looks v. attractive. What am I losing by not learning Obj.C/xcode to build native iOS apps?

wavephorm 14y ago
If you use web technologies you can build for more than just iOS devices. The Phonegap project (now called Apache Cordova) is maybe a bit better because it supports more platforms: http://incubator.apache.org/cordova/ http://incubator.apache.org/cordova/
- amirnathoo 14y ago
  Yes, they are an established project. But most people we speak to only care about iOS, Android and the mobile web. Maybe Windows Phone next year. And they much prefer our simple dev process, fast builds, and native UI components. </plug>
- atjoslin 14y ago
  I don't think Phonegap has native push notifications?
pirateking 14y ago
When the iPhone SDK was released, I got serious about learning Objective-C and Xcode. It was a slow painful process, but now I strongly prefer writing native apps to doing front end web development. The Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks are really great, and Objective-C has really been improving as a language. Xcode... yea it still sucks but things like provisioning profiles have gotten far more manageable since the early days. What you are missing out by not building native apps is an environment that is designed to really help you create great apps for users. Even with the crazy rate web technologies have been developing, a lot of it still feels like a bunch of hacks compared to native app development, which feels much more natural to me.
- cageface 14y ago
  Try AppCode. It has none of the suck of Xcode.
- pedalpete 14y ago
  The other side to that argument is what can't be done in native. From what I understand, you can't do a/b testing, you aren't going to be able to iterate as quickly, push bug fixes out instantly, etc. etc . Andrew Cross did a write-up about it (http://www.andrewcross.ca/2012/03/16/quick-tips-from-sxsw-for-applying-the-lean-startup-to-mobile/ http://www.andrewcross.ca/2012/03/16/quick-tips-from-sxsw-fo...) the gist being that many companies started out using something like trigger.io/phonegap/others so that they could benefit from the quick iteration cycles and other benefits of web. Once the things settle down a bit, they built native apps.
blhack 14y ago
Access to the camera, gyro, file uploads, push notifications etc.
- jasonlotito 14y ago
  Not true. You have access to all of these using systems like this (PhoneGap and Titanium also provide these and many other native features).
  - blhack 14y ago
    Sure. I thought GP was asking about what you get writing purely webapp stuff. Phonegap/Titanium are great, but they're hacks. Phonegap is just running your app in an uiWebView, then exposing some of the camera/etc. stuff via its own API, yeah? That's great, but IMHO, it shouldn't have to be like that.
    - jasonlotito 14y ago
      > Phonegap/Titanium are great, but they're hacks How is that any different then what Apple originally intended, and still makes available for web apps? PhoneGap is just exposing more native features than Apple does?

by edbloom 14y ago

As someone who has only dabbled with Obj. C but has 10+ years of traditional web dev experience this looks v. attractive. What am I losing by not learning Obj.C/xcode to build native iOS apps?

wavephorm 14y ago

If you use web technologies you can build for more than just iOS devices. The Phonegap project (now called Apache Cordova) is maybe a bit better because it supports more platforms: http://incubator.apache.org/cordova/ http://incubator.apache.org/cordova/

amirnathoo 14y ago
Yes, they are an established project. But most people we speak to only care about iOS, Android and the mobile web. Maybe Windows Phone next year. And they much prefer our simple dev process, fast builds, and native UI components. </plug>
atjoslin 14y ago
I don't think Phonegap has native push notifications?

pirateking 14y ago

When the iPhone SDK was released, I got serious about learning Objective-C and Xcode. It was a slow painful process, but now I strongly prefer writing native apps to doing front end web development. The Cocoa and Cocoa Touch frameworks are really great, and Objective-C has really been improving as a language. Xcode... yea it still sucks but things like provisioning profiles have gotten far more manageable since the early days. What you are missing out by not building native apps is an environment that is designed to really help you create great apps for users. Even with the crazy rate web technologies have been developing, a lot of it still feels like a bunch of hacks compared to native app development, which feels much more natural to me.

cageface 14y ago
Try AppCode. It has none of the suck of Xcode.
pedalpete 14y ago
The other side to that argument is what can't be done in native. From what I understand, you can't do a/b testing, you aren't going to be able to iterate as quickly, push bug fixes out instantly, etc. etc . Andrew Cross did a write-up about it (http://www.andrewcross.ca/2012/03/16/quick-tips-from-sxsw-for-applying-the-lean-startup-to-mobile/ http://www.andrewcross.ca/2012/03/16/quick-tips-from-sxsw-fo...) the gist being that many companies started out using something like trigger.io/phonegap/others so that they could benefit from the quick iteration cycles and other benefits of web. Once the things settle down a bit, they built native apps.

blhack 14y ago

Access to the camera, gyro, file uploads, push notifications etc.

jasonlotito 14y ago
Not true. You have access to all of these using systems like this (PhoneGap and Titanium also provide these and many other native features).
- blhack 14y ago
  Sure. I thought GP was asking about what you get writing purely webapp stuff. Phonegap/Titanium are great, but they're hacks. Phonegap is just running your app in an uiWebView, then exposing some of the camera/etc. stuff via its own API, yeah? That's great, but IMHO, it shouldn't have to be like that.
  - jasonlotito 14y ago
    > Phonegap/Titanium are great, but they're hacks How is that any different then what Apple originally intended, and still makes available for web apps? PhoneGap is just exposing more native features than Apple does?