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Ask HN: What tools are there for rapid mobile app development?

9 points by hues 10y ago

I have tons of experience in web development. I know of many scaffolding tools, preprocessors, and advanced debugging tools to rapidly prototype web apps however what tools are there for rapidly prototyping mobile apps. Can you provide both native and hybrid tools? Please also include how much coding knowledge that tool requires (no coding required to must be developer).

LarryMade2 10y ago
If you keep it simple then just some good responsive CSS, and keeping in in mind how mobile inputs works vs. desktop.
zn44 10y ago
i'd recommend react-native, iteration is very fast and you'd be able to reuse some of your web experience
hackermailman 10y ago
Lambda-Native uses Scheme (Guile) http://www.lambdanative.org/ http://www.lambdanative.org/ There's an example program on the front page to judge for yourself how much knowledge is required which is basically just an understanding of the scheme r5 spec. https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/learn/ https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/learn/
brock_obama 10y ago
Fastest in terms of bootstrapping/dev would probably be using Ionic or Cordova (https://ionicframework.com/ https://ionicframework.com/) but in my experience it is not super performant (as it is hybrid) and allows for little customization. Learning curve isn't super steep, esp if you already know Angular/Angular 2. Coding knowledge: html/css/es6/typescript/angular If you want good performance & a huge support base, React Native is probably the way to go. Learning curve is probably a bit higher than Ionic/Cordova (you will deal with platform specific syntax for components), but its what many top companies (AirBnB, Instagram, FB) use for their mobile apps. It is really performant. You may need to write platform specific code and it may take slightly more time, but I still would prefer this route over the hybrid app route. Coding knowledge: need to know html/css/es6 & have experience with frontend frameworks. Redux/Flux has a bit of a learning curve. TL;DR: Try doing tutorials for both, and see which one you prefer. IMO it's probably not as fast to develop for React Native as it is Ionic/Cordova, but its still the far better option. It's worth the effort to go down the React Native route.