Mobile at Scale

#1

Post by teddynsnoopy » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 12:53 AM UTC

Re: Mobile at Scale

#2

Post by programminggeek » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 2:50 AM UTC

I'm going to geek out here for a minute at the fact that Facebook made a screenshot diffing tool for testing. I've been wanting to build that very thing for a long time, but every developer I've talked to about it looks at me like I'm crazy.

So, am I still crazy for thinking screenshot diffing might be an effective way to verify builds?

Re: Mobile at Scale

#3

Post by MysticFear » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 2:52 AM UTC

HTML5 is not effective at the moment, but as phones become more powerful. I think it will take over. The same way the web app took over from desktop apps when personal PCs and network bandwidth improved.

Re: Mobile at Scale

#4

Post by programminggeek » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 3:01 AM UTC

MysticFear wrote: post #3

HTML5 is not effective at the moment, but as phones become more powerful. I think it will take over. The same way the web app took over from desktop apps when personal PCs and network bandwidth improved.

Perhaps, but the same has been said for what the last two or three years and in that time frame we've gone from single core to quad core and 800 MHz to like 1.9 GHz and HTML5 apps still are not up to snuff.

I wanted HTML5 apps to be awesome because the developer experience was easier, but it makes for a sucky product, so I started just digging into native and making better software.

I've learned my lesson. At some point, we all have to realize that you do the hard, messy work to build the best experience possible for the end user. If getting to that was cheap and easy, we woudln't be worth what they pay us to build software.

Re: Mobile at Scale

#5

Post by wooster » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 3:33 AM UTC

programminggeek wrote: post #2

I'm going to geek out here for a minute at the fact that Facebook made a screenshot diffing tool for testing. I've been wanting to build that very thing for a long time, but every developer I've talked to about it looks at me like I'm crazy. So, am I still crazy for thinking screenshot diffing might be an effective way to verify builds?

It can be very effective. For example, WebKit has used it extensively. On the other hand, it can slow you down if your software involves rapid iteration of the UI, in which case semantic UI testing (using, eg, accessibility) may be a better solution.

Re: Mobile at Scale

#6

Post by pbreit » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 3:34 AM UTC

Seems like no one's really struggling to scale mobile I suspect because 1) usage, although large, is less intense and 2) much less goes over the wire (usually just data, not pages).

Re: Mobile at Scale

#7

Post by vjeux » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 3:53 AM UTC

programminggeek wrote: post #2

I'm going to geek out here for a minute at the fact that Facebook made a screenshot diffing tool for testing. I've been wanting to build that very thing for a long time, but every developer I've talked to about it looks at me like I'm crazy. So, am I still crazy for thinking screenshot diffing might be an effective way to verify builds?

Huxley is being used by Instagram for their www stack and is already open source. https://github.com/facebook/huxley

Re: Mobile at Scale

#8

Post by film42 » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 6:02 AM UTC

MysticFear wrote: post #3

HTML5 is not effective at the moment, but as phones become more powerful. I think it will take over. The same way the web app took over from desktop apps when personal PCs and network bandwidth improved.

I think it will just become easier to hash out ideas with html5 apps, but I don't think there will ever be a point where we can do 100% html5. I mean, obviously if you're doing game dev, or require other system intensive tasks, you're probably gonna want to stick with native. Really though, this reminds me a lot of ruby on rails.. meaning, easily solves most problems, but doesn't solve all problems.

Re: Mobile at Scale

#9

Post by camus2 » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 6:14 AM UTC

MysticFear wrote: post #3

HTML5 is not effective at the moment, but as phones become more powerful. I think it will take over. The same way the web app took over from desktop apps when personal PCs and network bandwidth improved.

> The same way the web app took over from desktop apps

You just made that up , it's not backed by any fact.

Re: Mobile at Scale

#10

Post by thejosh » Sun, Oct 27, 2013, 6:43 AM UTC

programminggeek wrote: post #2

I'm going to geek out here for a minute at the fact that Facebook made a screenshot diffing tool for testing. I've been wanting to build that very thing for a long time, but every developer I've talked to about it looks at me like I'm crazy. So, am I still crazy for thinking screenshot diffing might be an effective way to verify builds?

For web there is https://github.com/BBC-News/wraith , there needs to be something like this for mobile development.