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There are also some heavy downsides in Xcode/Obj-C development, such as hunting down memory leaks and crashes, and having a relatively slow upgrade path for new

by kennu 16y ago

There are also some heavy downsides in Xcode/Obj-C development, such as hunting down memory leaks and crashes, and having a relatively slow upgrade path for new versions, without a guarantee that everybody will upgrade. I agree that there are cases for both approaches (native and web app), but it's also pretty amazing what you can do with HTML5/CSS3 if you know how to utilize e.g. iOS hardware acceleration properly. In fact the whole iOS web stack with offline support, local storage, startup images and icons etc. is getting so complete, you can't even notice whether you're using a native or a well crafted HTML app.

algore 16y ago
> you can't even notice whether you're using a native or a well crafted HTML app. That's completely untrue. It is immediately noticeable because of the lack of responsiveness, smoothness of transitions, and ugly layouts. Like I said, you can put together a bunch of hacks to try and imitate it, but you end up with something clunky and unprofessional. This wasn't as big a deal 10 years ago, but interface expectations on these devices (especially the tablets) are very high. Quality design is expected by a lot more customers in the hardware AND software. Interfacing with touch gestures needs to be instant and seamless. Did you even look at the "Ali Quotes" app in the story? It's terrible. I've poked around the jQueryMobile already on my iPhone, the whole thing is, in a word, slow. Yes, I know it's new. It will be better in six months... after thousands of coding hours will be spent concocting ludicrous javascript and CSS hacks to duplicate something that's been done perfectly well on native client platforms for 3 years. It's a terrible waste of effort. > There are also some heavy downsides in Xcode/Obj-C development, such as hunting down memory leaks and crashes True, these are problems that have existed forever, and better dev tools help alleviate them. But don't forget these same problems are prevalent all over web apps too. Flash memory leaks are everywhere. Javascript suddenly consumes 100% of your CPU. Same problems, but no one care about fixing them because its just a webpage, just reload it. Well OK, but that's why even after 10 years people don't trust webapps.
blub 16y ago
There are also some heavy downsides in Xcode/Obj-C development, such as hunting down memory leaks and crashes, --------------------- As opposed to hunting DOM leaks and having your script silently fail?
evgen 16y ago
you can't even notice whether you're using a native or a well crafted HTML app. While HTML apps are nice and very good for quick-and-dirty prototyping, I think you are sadly mistaken if you think that no one notices the difference. It would take just a couple of seconds of playing around with certain UI widgets to know if you were running on an HTML app if you knew what to look for. Even a short period of use people who do not know the tell-tale signs tend to get a feeling that there is something "wrong" with the app.

by kennu 16y ago

algore 16y ago

> you can't even notice whether you're using a native or a well crafted HTML app. That's completely untrue. It is immediately noticeable because of the lack of responsiveness, smoothness of transitions, and ugly layouts. Like I said, you can put together a bunch of hacks to try and imitate it, but you end up with something clunky and unprofessional. This wasn't as big a deal 10 years ago, but interface expectations on these devices (especially the tablets) are very high. Quality design is expected by a lot more customers in the hardware AND software. Interfacing with touch gestures needs to be instant and seamless. Did you even look at the "Ali Quotes" app in the story? It's terrible. I've poked around the jQueryMobile already on my iPhone, the whole thing is, in a word, slow. Yes, I know it's new. It will be better in six months... after thousands of coding hours will be spent concocting ludicrous javascript and CSS hacks to duplicate something that's been done perfectly well on native client platforms for 3 years. It's a terrible waste of effort. > There are also some heavy downsides in Xcode/Obj-C development, such as hunting down memory leaks and crashes True, these are problems that have existed forever, and better dev tools help alleviate them. But don't forget these same problems are prevalent all over web apps too. Flash memory leaks are everywhere. Javascript suddenly consumes 100% of your CPU. Same problems, but no one care about fixing them because its just a webpage, just reload it. Well OK, but that's why even after 10 years people don't trust webapps.

blub 16y ago

There are also some heavy downsides in Xcode/Obj-C development, such as hunting down memory leaks and crashes, --------------------- As opposed to hunting DOM leaks and having your script silently fail?

evgen 16y ago

you can't even notice whether you're using a native or a well crafted HTML app. While HTML apps are nice and very good for quick-and-dirty prototyping, I think you are sadly mistaken if you think that no one notices the difference. It would take just a couple of seconds of playing around with certain UI widgets to know if you were running on an HTML app if you knew what to look for. Even a short period of use people who do not know the tell-tale signs tend to get a feeling that there is something "wrong" with the app.