5 ms·

Adding offline access would indeed be nice, but that wouldn't even add 2mb of code. I have entire native mobile games with multiplayer under 3mb. EDIT: just re

by winrid 5y ago

Adding offline access would indeed be nice, but that wouldn't even add 2mb of code. I have entire native mobile games with multiplayer under 3mb. EDIT: just realized the app is a web view. Sigh

nindalf 5y ago
That was literally what the previous comment was trying to tell you.
- squeaky-clean 5y ago
  Web view apps can still work offline if they're designed for it.
  - kroltan 5y ago
    Yes, but the 3mb is just the wrapper, I bet if you delete the hundred-ish megabytes of cache, it won't work offline anymore :)
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - samhw 5y ago
      But that's entirely fair: of course caching data uses up storage. But it's my choice - I can pay for what I use. The crucial part is that I don't need to download an app which is hundreds of megabytes large just in order to hypothetically support caching. No one can tell me that our species can write 1K ZX Chess (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1K_ZX_Chess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1K_ZX_Chess) – an entire chess game with intelligent opponents which only takes up 672 bytes – and yet we can't write an email client which isn't a million times that size.
      - ComradePhil 5y ago
        It's often the high-res assets (images, videos, sounds, animations etc.) which take up most of the space, not the code itself. When it comes to the code, the reason that they are bigger is how apps are distributed and have isolated runtimes. There are several commonly used sdks and libraries but because of how mobile app distribution works, these common libraries have to be bundled with each app and are not installed as a reusable library (like you can do with Linux, for example).
      - kroltan 5y ago
        I agree if cached data was actually proportional to usage. But a lot of these webview kind of apps just download the whole thing anyways, so it's literally just a matter of if the bytes are classified under "application size" or "cache" by the OS. (Precisely so they have the whole thing available for when you need to use it offline)
      - lupire 5y ago
        That game was famous for how bad it was, except that it miraculously fit in a tiny package.
      - jsjohnst 5y ago
        > and yet we can't write an email client which isn't a million times that size. The issue is that the Gmail app isn’t just an email client, it does way more than that. That doesn’t excuse the abusive behavior, but it does explain it.
- winrid 5y ago
  Yeah I realized that too late :)
vmception 5y ago
I’ve been judged by prospective employers based on reported app size being seen as correlated to complexity. VC backed startup I worked at for 18 months with a 12 megabyte app size due to efficient design choices? Must be a joke So now I just add a 150 megabyte dummy file at everyone else’s expense I’m sure there is a lot of that going on given how long some job roles were open, I have to imagine that every mobile developer on the market may have passed through and made the same conclusion!
- Uptrenda 5y ago
  If your app is too fast you should also make sure to add a sleep() to it so the customer knows that its 'working.' I read a humorous story about a contractor who did that to satisfy a customers complaint that it was too fast.
- klodolph 5y ago
  On the other hand, when your app is actually functional at 12 MB, you'll find users from more parts of the world using it.
  - vmception 5y ago
    Yes when I ever make an app for my own project But for most employers they just need presence, almost nobody was breaking even on apps they just needed the presence on the app stores. Big waste of money for most, and for most projects I was pitched
  - emteycz 5y ago
    You can geofence a Lite version
- uoaei 5y ago
  Well it may not be correlated to complexity but it certainly is correlated to end user satisfaction. If their device prompts a "device cleanup" operation and your app is near the top of the list that doesn't do much good for retention. Not to mention the billions of devices in the world which are running old OS versions with scant memory capacity.

by winrid 5y ago

Adding offline access would indeed be nice, but that wouldn't even add 2mb of code. I have entire native mobile games with multiplayer under 3mb. EDIT: just realized the app is a web view. Sigh

nindalf 5y ago

That was literally what the previous comment was trying to tell you.

squeaky-clean 5y ago
Web view apps can still work offline if they're designed for it.
- kroltan 5y ago
  Yes, but the 3mb is just the wrapper, I bet if you delete the hundred-ish megabytes of cache, it won't work offline anymore :)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - samhw 5y ago
    But that's entirely fair: of course caching data uses up storage. But it's my choice - I can pay for what I use. The crucial part is that I don't need to download an app which is hundreds of megabytes large just in order to hypothetically support caching. No one can tell me that our species can write 1K ZX Chess (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1K_ZX_Chess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1K_ZX_Chess) – an entire chess game with intelligent opponents which only takes up 672 bytes – and yet we can't write an email client which isn't a million times that size.
    - ComradePhil 5y ago
      It's often the high-res assets (images, videos, sounds, animations etc.) which take up most of the space, not the code itself. When it comes to the code, the reason that they are bigger is how apps are distributed and have isolated runtimes. There are several commonly used sdks and libraries but because of how mobile app distribution works, these common libraries have to be bundled with each app and are not installed as a reusable library (like you can do with Linux, for example).
    - kroltan 5y ago
      I agree if cached data was actually proportional to usage. But a lot of these webview kind of apps just download the whole thing anyways, so it's literally just a matter of if the bytes are classified under "application size" or "cache" by the OS. (Precisely so they have the whole thing available for when you need to use it offline)
    - lupire 5y ago
      That game was famous for how bad it was, except that it miraculously fit in a tiny package.
    - jsjohnst 5y ago
      > and yet we can't write an email client which isn't a million times that size. The issue is that the Gmail app isn’t just an email client, it does way more than that. That doesn’t excuse the abusive behavior, but it does explain it.
winrid 5y ago
Yeah I realized that too late :)

vmception 5y ago

I’ve been judged by prospective employers based on reported app size being seen as correlated to complexity. VC backed startup I worked at for 18 months with a 12 megabyte app size due to efficient design choices? Must be a joke So now I just add a 150 megabyte dummy file at everyone else’s expense I’m sure there is a lot of that going on given how long some job roles were open, I have to imagine that every mobile developer on the market may have passed through and made the same conclusion!

Uptrenda 5y ago
If your app is too fast you should also make sure to add a sleep() to it so the customer knows that its 'working.' I read a humorous story about a contractor who did that to satisfy a customers complaint that it was too fast.
klodolph 5y ago
On the other hand, when your app is actually functional at 12 MB, you'll find users from more parts of the world using it.
- vmception 5y ago
  Yes when I ever make an app for my own project But for most employers they just need presence, almost nobody was breaking even on apps they just needed the presence on the app stores. Big waste of money for most, and for most projects I was pitched
- emteycz 5y ago
  You can geofence a Lite version
uoaei 5y ago
Well it may not be correlated to complexity but it certainly is correlated to end user satisfaction. If their device prompts a "device cleanup" operation and your app is near the top of the list that doesn't do much good for retention. Not to mention the billions of devices in the world which are running old OS versions with scant memory capacity.