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PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

iconoclastlabs.com

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Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#11

Post by anuraj »

lrz wrote: post #10
anuraj wrote: post #8

I can understand PhoneGap will be handy when requiring cross platform compatibility and you are not a multi platform expert. The experience is always going to be underwhelming. RubyMotion is much more ambiguous, on one hand we have beautiful XCode and Objective-C environment which is a pleasure to use, and then this command line monstrosity! And it do not save you from learning cocoa libraries - So if you want to dev…

Well, there are folks who don't find Xcode or Objective-C beautiful and prefer using the command-line. A lot of folks, actually. :)

Well - try developing a pixel perfect app on command line and see! And by the way Objective-C is the fastest growing language out there.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#12

Post by evilduck »

anuraj wrote: post #8

I can understand PhoneGap will be handy when requiring cross platform compatibility and you are not a multi platform expert. The experience is always going to be underwhelming. RubyMotion is much more ambiguous, on one hand we have beautiful XCode and Objective-C environment which is a pleasure to use, and then this command line monstrosity! And it do not save you from learning cocoa libraries - So if you want to dev…

I would politely disagree. XCode is a beast of a program to learn and to maneuver, RubyMotion's command line interface is comparatively very simple with only a handful of commands. Coming from Ruby, it behaves like most things in that ecosystem, command line oriented and no IDEs, obviously if you're coming from XCode, it's going to feel foreign.

Further, I think learning Cocoa libraries in verbatim Objective-C is a only transient problem for the near-term. Efforts are already underway to abstract away some of that complexity but it's hard to be overly critical of a 5 week old project for not being mature.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#13

Post by evilduck »

anuraj wrote: post #11
lrz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there are folks who don't find Xcode or Objective-C beautiful and prefer using the command-line. A lot of folks, actually. :)

Well - try developing a pixel perfect app on command line and see! And by the way Objective-C is the fastest growing language out there.

You can still use XCode's interface builder and use Storyboards and XIBs with RubyMotion. It's not as nicely coupled as it is with Objective-C, but again, RubyMotion is in its infancy and evolving rapidly.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#14

Post by jballanc »

anuraj wrote: post #11
lrz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there are folks who don't find Xcode or Objective-C beautiful and prefer using the command-line. A lot of folks, actually. :)

Well - try developing a pixel perfect app on command line and see! And by the way Objective-C is the fastest growing language out there.

In my experience, the text-editor/command-line path is the only way to be truly "pixel perfect". Visual tools can get you most of the way there, but it seems you always inevitably have to touch the drawing code if you want true accuracy.

Oh, and as for Objective-C being a fast growing language? The rise of Objective-C is directly tied to the rise of the iOS platform. If iOS had been written in any other language, Objective-C would still be a mostly forgotten language today.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#15

Post by jballanc »

gavingmiller wrote: post #3

The article isn't necessarily a far comparison: PhoneGap is cross platform, RubyMotion isn't. But it's nice to see someone holding up the different tools against one another. His conclusion is more than correct for PhoneGap: PhoneGap feels like half-assing it.

While it is early days, it is worth mentioning (or at least taking note of) Ruboto: http://ruboto.org/

Between Ruboto and RubyMotion, I think there is a very real possibility that Ruby will become a significant player in the mobile space.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#16

Post by jasonlotito »

Seems kind of an odd comparison to make. I see RubyMotion more in competition with something like Titanium. The question then becomes whether you want to use JavaScript or Ruby, as well as the support.

Personally, I just bit the bullet and spent time learning Obj-C, and found it to be much more pleasurable (especially when you don't limit yourself to just using XCode).

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#17

Post by lrz »

anuraj wrote: post #11
lrz wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there are folks who don't find Xcode or Objective-C beautiful and prefer using the command-line. A lot of folks, actually. :)

Well - try developing a pixel perfect app on command line and see! And by the way Objective-C is the fastest growing language out there.

I did. And by the way; irrelevant.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#18

Post by bryanjclark »

I'm still waiting to see one app made in PhoneGap that doesn't look like complete rubbish.

For my nickel, I believe your best bet is to either make a native app, or a mobile website. These "cross-platform" tools just make apps that feel like junk.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#19

Post by evilduck »

jasonlotito wrote: post #16

Seems kind of an odd comparison to make. I see RubyMotion more in competition with something like Titanium. The question then becomes whether you want to use JavaScript or Ruby, as well as the support. Personally, I just bit the bullet and spent time learning Obj-C, and found it to be much more pleasurable (especially when you don't limit yourself to just using XCode).

The comparison was one of personal experience, we had the app written in PhoneGap prior to the release of RubyMotion, then rewrote it. The post just documents our impressions from both approaches.

Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion

#20

Post by GantMan »

freehunter wrote: post #7

One thing that really put me off about this article: the giant header that scrolls with the page. Vertical real-estate is already limited on a wide-screen monitor. I hate it when CNet does it, I hate it when news sites do it, I hate it all around. I understand I might not be speaking for everyone, but a nice thing would be an option to stick the header to the top. It could scroll by default until you click a button,…

buy a better monitor jj. Good point, we'll add an unstick on our todo list.
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