3 ms·

Ask HN: Suppose I wanted to develop a mobile GUI application...

3 points by jgalvez 18y ago

What would be the best way to tackle it? J2ME? The application I have in mind just needs input boxes and buttons, very simple. It would store pieces of data and synchronized them with a webservice from time to time. It would ideally need to boot up VERY FAST so C/C++ is not off the table either. What is the most ubiquitous platform for running applications on cellphones and what are the tools? Any pointers?

noodle 18y ago
ubiquitous? web app. you won't write something for blackberry that runs on the iphone.
- jgalvez 18y ago
  Yeah, but I want to avoid having to force the user open up the browser before using the application, so even providing multiple versions of the same app to target the most mobile devices is an option.
qhoxie 18y ago
There are a number of different avenues you could take on this: iPhone - Obj C. and xcode makes for a great development environment. Problem is, xcode makes for the only development environment. You will have to distribute it through the App Store, unless of course it is for jailbroken phones. Symbian - Common platform to many phones. C++ or Java with fairly good SDKs. No App Store equivalent could be a pro or a con. Android - Not many handhelds out yet. Java with solid SDK and tools. Central app repository for distribution. Blackberry - New central app repository. Variety of development environments including VS. Java for the most part. Well documented SDK. Barring some really bad code, you should not have performance issues with any of these platforms. Depending on the simplicity of your app, it could be worthwhile to deploy on a number of these.
- jgalvez 18y ago
  Ha, thanks a lot. Very good overview, I will start digging each one of those.
mr_excellent 18y ago
You could write apps to run on the [Openmoko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko) [Neo FreeRunner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner). The [Rasterman](http://www.rasterman.com/ http://www.rasterman.com/) used to work for them (some info is on his site about related work he's doing now). Some more info about the platform is in [this fsf blog post](http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone...).

3 points by jgalvez 18y ago

noodle 18y ago

ubiquitous? web app. you won't write something for blackberry that runs on the iphone.

jgalvez 18y ago
Yeah, but I want to avoid having to force the user open up the browser before using the application, so even providing multiple versions of the same app to target the most mobile devices is an option.

qhoxie 18y ago

There are a number of different avenues you could take on this: iPhone - Obj C. and xcode makes for a great development environment. Problem is, xcode makes for the only development environment. You will have to distribute it through the App Store, unless of course it is for jailbroken phones. Symbian - Common platform to many phones. C++ or Java with fairly good SDKs. No App Store equivalent could be a pro or a con. Android - Not many handhelds out yet. Java with solid SDK and tools. Central app repository for distribution. Blackberry - New central app repository. Variety of development environments including VS. Java for the most part. Well documented SDK. Barring some really bad code, you should not have performance issues with any of these platforms. Depending on the simplicity of your app, it could be worthwhile to deploy on a number of these.

jgalvez 18y ago
Ha, thanks a lot. Very good overview, I will start digging each one of those.

mr_excellent 18y ago

You could write apps to run on the [Openmoko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openmoko) [Neo FreeRunner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner). The [Rasterman](http://www.rasterman.com/ http://www.rasterman.com/) used to work for them (some info is on his site about related work he's doing now). Some more info about the platform is in [this fsf blog post](http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone...).