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The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

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Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#11

Post by tomwhipple »

The idea that we'll be able to write apps in an interpereted language is probably a long ways off, but the second idea about more portable object models is spot on.

I would argue that such a model would need to include the ability to easily manage per record image assets. (think about how often we have images in a table view cell)

To that end, I've created an iOS library to deal with downloading these tables and images in a reasonable way. If you're interested: https://github.com/Smartovation/STRemoteResources

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#13

Post by rmason »

franzus wrote: post #8

One thing all those "let's build our app on top of 1000 layers so we can use our $favourite language"-people tend to forget is that mobile software runs on mobile devices. Which have one remarkable property: they are energy constrained. So you better write some fast, native code or your users will have trouble keeping their devices alive for one day.

I remember well the assembly language crowd making the same argument back in the eighties. Processors got faster and machines shipped with more RAM. The tipping point was reached and all of a sudden no one was writing entire programs that way.

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#14

Post by jiggy2011 »

The problem with write once run anywhere is that it's not desirable to device manufacturers apart from those on the bottom rungs who don't have a big enough developer community to carry the devices on their own. If MS and Apple threw JVMs onto their devices then we would be 90% of the way there already.

If any write-once-run-anywhere solution becomes to popular then the likes of MS or Apple will try their best to kill it. See: Embrace, extend , extinguish by MS on Java and to an extent the web itself and Apple's ban on language runtimes/interpreters on the app store.

If every device allows for the same functionality as other devices due to identical software then manufacturers will only be able to compete on price.

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#15

Post by sandofsky »

rmason wrote: post #13
franzus wrote: post #8

One thing all those "let's build our app on top of 1000 layers so we can use our $favourite language"-people tend to forget is that mobile software runs on mobile devices. Which have one remarkable property: they are energy constrained. So you better write some fast, native code or your users will have trouble keeping their devices alive for one day.

I remember well the assembly language crowd making the same argument back in the eighties. Processors got faster and machines shipped with more RAM. The tipping point was reached and all of a sudden no one was writing entire programs that way.

While you wait for the tipping point, I'll be over here shipping.

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#16

Post by cageface »

untog wrote: post #7

Imagine writing code like this and having it build to native apps on both platforms: I think Xamarin are going to be a really interesting company to watch for this stuff. Right now they have MonoTouch and MonoDroid as entirely separate products, allowing you to make apps using C#. But you can already reference libraries across both, and just do the UI plumbing separately, and if they're smart they will work very hard…

I agree. Xamarin is closer than anybody else to a viable cross platform solution. They're in just the right place now to start eliminating some of the worst pain points in mobile.

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#17

Post by untog »

cageface wrote: post #16
untog wrote: post #7

Imagine writing code like this and having it build to native apps on both platforms: I think Xamarin are going to be a really interesting company to watch for this stuff. Right now they have MonoTouch and MonoDroid as entirely separate products, allowing you to make apps using C#. But you can already reference libraries across both, and just do the UI plumbing separately, and if they're smart they will work very hard…

I agree. Xamarin is closer than anybody else to a viable cross platform solution. They're in just the right place now to start eliminating some of the worst pain points in mobile.

Appcelerator ought to be as well (with the added bonus of using JS, far better known than C#), but their platform isn't on the same level. Yet?

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#18

Post by siuying »

I agree with most of the point, these advance certainly benefits for the product quality. But the conclusion and the hope of "Write once run everywhere" is probably not a good bet.

It is not about problem of programming language or tools, but Java already told us the "lowest common denominator" issue you have to face when implementing abstract over different platform. When people working on abstraction, it mean they will spend less time on real devices and fine details, and this is exactly what makes or breaks user experience.

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#19

Post by modarts »

sandofsky wrote: post #15
rmason wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember well the assembly language crowd making the same argument back in the eighties. Processors got faster and machines shipped with more RAM. The tipping point was reached and all of a sudden no one was writing entire programs that way.

While you wait for the tipping point, I'll be over here shipping.

Shipping slow, bloated software using a framework that is a second class citizen on any platform you decide to compile to.

Re: The Shape of Mobile Development To Come

#20

Post by cbrauchli »

revicon wrote: post #12

I haven't seen any mention of Phone Gap ( http://phonegap.com/ ) or Titanium ( http://www.appcelerator.com/ ). Whats the consensus of how close either of these projects get us to a "one code base" solution to multiple platforms?

Neither does a very good job if a good UX is a concern. I haven't encountered any PhoneGap apps that feel native.
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