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Agreed that the barrier to entry for mobile app dev is high enough to the point of excluding vast swathes of developers from building tools for themselves. Ive
by AJRF 6y ago
Agreed that the barrier to entry for mobile app dev is high enough to the point of excluding vast swathes of developers from building tools for themselves.
Ive been an iOS dev for 5 years and I'm now looking to move into web dev for a few reasons;
* making any mobile app is by default harder and more frustrating than making a web based equivalent.
* You can’t easily ‘remix’ an app, Inspect Element style learning is impossible.
* Native doesn’t really give you much in perf over web anymore (navigation and state refresh is still bad on web - but you can work to make it passable).
* SwiftUI is a huge step in the wrong direction. Its a poor mix between React and standard HTML, without the benefits of a styling markup.
* I am a rookie web dev, but a senior iOS dev and I find making web apps easier than a similar native app. After 5 years. Now sure this could say something about me - but I don’t think so as there is so much evidence based on the current state of adoption for the corresponding technologies. I have skin in the game when it comes to native and I have no doubts when I say it’s easier to make products with web tech.
* Xcode is tragically poor to then point where it is a consideration for me to stop working in the ecosystem, it is simply appallingly bad.
This is a bit of a rant, sorry about that, but I feel like there is a general mood in the spaces I dwell in the native has lost its appeal. Year to year the SDK updates become less relevant (you could argue last years SwiftUI is the biggest change in years but its not ready yet, it doesn’t make the ecosystem any nicer to work in given how long it takes to get from farm to fork with a mobile app, and anecdotally 100% of the devs I’ve talked to that have made an app in it have given up on it for their next idea for the time being)
- myko 6y ago> * You can’t easily ‘remix’ an app, Inspect Element style learning is impossible. Note quite, it's possible to inject FLEX into other apps and see what is going on: https://github.com/Flipboard/FLEX https://github.com/Flipboard/FLEX It isn't as easy as right clicking and inspecting element but it's not impossible.
- WizardAustralis 6y agoThings like this is when Firefox OS/Kai OS start to make sense. Make the OS a vehicle for web technologies. The application doesn't need to worry too much about OS specific quirks. Unfortunately, Kai OS is such a huge departure in terms of interface so it doesn't really hit the sweet spot in terms of developer ease and user desires.
- fabrice_d 6y agoIf you are interested in reviving the Firefox OS spirit on the PinePhone, join the #b2g channel on https://chat.mozilla.org/ https://chat.mozilla.org/ . It's more active than ever these days :)
- nwienert 6y agoSwiftUI is really great, it just needs more time in the oven. XCode is horrible though.