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.
PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
31–37 of 37 posts
Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
#32Seems 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).
Titanium uses it's own methods and translates that code into Obj-C (you can actually see the * incredibly insane* trans-source when you build the app) -- RubyMotion is a direct interface with Cocoa and Obj-C. If you know Obj-C you can immediately start experimenting with RubyMotion --comfortably-- and if you know Ruby and can "read" Obj-C you can immediately pick up the iOS cookbook and get started, like the authors did. Think of it as a dialect, similar to CoffeeScript, where all the same rules apply, but things are just... better. Having zero Obj-C experience and, I admit, no desire to go into the realms of byte-sized memory management, I avoided it for a long time, but after just a few weeks with RM I feel like I have a very strong grasp on both Ruby and Obj-C, and can read and write both interchangeably, including interfacing with Storyboards and Interface Builder. Two languages for the price of one, IMO, and that was well worth the $150 dollars I paid, aside from any products that I may release with the toolchain.
But yeah, in short: there's no comparison between Titanium and RM.
Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
#33Seems 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.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply that your article was odd. Just, it seems odd to have that comparison made. Sort of like comparing a programming language to a framework if you will.
Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
#34Seems 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).
Titanium uses it's own methods and translates that code into Obj-C (you can actually see the * incredibly insane* trans-source when you build the app) -- RubyMotion is a direct interface with Cocoa and Obj-C. If you know Obj-C you can immediately start experimenting with RubyMotion --comfortably-- and if you know Ruby and can "read" Obj-C you can immediately pick up the iOS cookbook and get started, like the authors…
Not a fan of Ruby (which pretty much nails RM's coffin for me), so really can't comment. You appear a fan of Ruby, so I take what you say with a grain of salt.
> there's no comparison between Titanium and RM.
Well, there is. As much, I guess, as there is between PhoneGap and RM. I really just saw RM and Titanium having more in common then what PhoneGap had to offer, and saw the comparison as a bit odd. PhoneGap's goals are different then RM or Titanium. That's all I really meant.
Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Titanium uses it's own methods and translates that code into Obj-C (you can actually see the * incredibly insane* trans-source when you build the app) -- RubyMotion is a direct interface with Cocoa and Obj-C. If you know Obj-C you can immediately start experimenting with RubyMotion --comfortably-- and if you know Ruby and can "read" Obj-C you can immediately pick up the iOS cookbook and get started, like the authors…
Not a fan of Ruby (which pretty much nails RM's coffin for me), so really can't comment. You appear a fan of Ruby, so I take what you say with a grain of salt. > there's no comparison between Titanium and RM. Well, there is. As much, I guess, as there is between PhoneGap and RM. I really just saw RM and Titanium having more in common then what PhoneGap had to offer, and saw the comparison as a bit odd. PhoneGap's goa…
Well, I'm now a fan of Ruby; I learned it via RubyMotion :)
Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
#36I 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…
are you kidding? XCode is not a pleasure to use at all. It's a horrible cluttered environment that makes programming a CHORE.
Re: PhoneGap vs RubyMotion
#37One 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.
It's not so much that the header is stuck there, it's that the logo hangs down further than the bar. While reading the post, several times I started reading a sentence only to see the middle of it and having to adjust the scrolling. Also, it breaks the space bar... I can't just read a page, hit space to get the next page of text. It forces me to scroll with my mouse. Very annoying.