Ask HN: How to know the tech stack behind an "insanely great looking" iOS app?

Post by hussa » Wed, Apr 25, 2012, 4:17 AM UTC

jefflinwood wrote: post #5

hussa wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your response...Photoshop...I get that...but what I was looking for is the framework and the intricacies behind that makes it an insanely great app. For example, with PhoneGap and HTML5 there are something that can be done better and faster than to try the same with native iOS classes. Wanted to see if there are any place where these things are revealed or if there are any advice on these.

I'm not sure what you mean. PhoneGap and HTML5 are slow compared to either the mobile web, or a native app. The UIWebView that PhoneGap uses on iOS doesn't use JIT Javascript, so it's going to be slower than mobile web. Either one of those isn't going to have the responsiveness of a native app.

Sure, I agree, PhoneGap could be not as blazing as the native core...I just mentioned that as an example. Do we have any websites where we can see the tech behind these great apps? I'm sure there are a few for web apps.

Post by brandoncordell » Thu, Apr 26, 2012, 3:39 PM UTC

hussa wrote: post #10

brandoncordell wrote: post #8

Most of these "insanely great looking" apps are done Objective-C and Cocoa Touch. It's really easy (even before iOS5) to pull it off. iOS5 of course makes it super easy with the use of UIAppearance. Cocoa Touch has everything built in to pull this off. I'm working on an app right where the ui is "completely custom". I say it like that because I'm using all the default Cocoa Touch stuff, just "skinned" as you will. Ju…

That seems like a pretty solid response from someone who uses the native core mostly; thanks for that. I understand that we certainly can pull it off with the native core (ObjC/cTouch) but always wondered if all those "insanely great looking" apps took the pain of skinning all the controls, coming up with their own look and feel of everything the core provides and extending them, or is there a framework (library or s…

Yes most took the pain of skinning the application to get the look and feel they wanted. The pain was soothed with iOS5's UIAppearance in a big way though. UIAppearance makes it easy because you can set the look of a component throughout the entire application. For example I only have to skin the UINavigationBar once, and the UITabBar once. Then all navBars and tabBars I use have the same look and feel.

Re: Ask HN: How to know the tech stack behind an "insanely great looking" iOS app?

Re: Ask HN: How to know the tech stack behind an "insanely great looking" iOS app?