Great, I didn't know about React Native and now I know. Great stuff, looks promising.
Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
51–60 of 71 posts
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Native is mostly about widgets and UI -- which is what matters to the user. Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs...
Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs... For starters, that doesn't make any sense. Note the `C` part of Objective-C. Secondly, native infers compiled to executable native code, not interpreted or JIT'd via an intermediary.
I don't think anyone considers .NET apps non-native on Windows.
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Native is mostly about widgets and UI -- which is what matters to the user. Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs...
Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs... For starters, that doesn't make any sense. Note the `C` part of Objective-C. Secondly, native infers compiled to executable native code, not interpreted or JIT'd via an intermediary.
>Secondly, native infers compiled to executable native code, not interpreted or JIT'd via an intermediary
And the GUI/Widgets part you get to use through JS here is just that (the native implementation from the OS GUI libs), which, as I said, is what users really care about when they ask for native apps.
See also the sibling comment about .NET apps and Windows.
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#54I'd like to know how this compares to cloud-based web presences.
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what makes it "native" or not is how the app is rendered. You can basically take any web application and wrap it into an app, but it displays in a "web view" whereas a "native" app uses the built-in display components of the OS. For example, the little slider gray/green icon instead of radio buttons on iOS. Also, native apps have access to certain device APIs like the camera while non-native apps don't (at le…
Cordova, which uses HTML in a WebView paradigm, lets you wrap native API's as plugins, so you can access them from JavaScript. You can access most (all?) native functionality from within JS using either Corfova-supplied or third party plugins. Honestly, Cordova + Ionic/Angular has been a great experience so far. Very few problems and a super quick time to market. I can't imagine iterating as quickly for two platforms…
Yes, but you don't get a native UI with hybrid solutions like Cordova. Also, in order to use native APIs, you have to create special wrappers for them, whereas in NativeScript, it looks like you can call the APIs directly. (How this affects performance, I don't know.)
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#56How to read from SQL Database ?
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Native is mostly about widgets and UI -- which is what matters to the user. Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs...
Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs... For starters, that doesn't make any sense. Note the `C` part of Objective-C. Secondly, native infers compiled to executable native code, not interpreted or JIT'd via an intermediary.
Wouldn't that definition make Dalvik(/Java) applications on Android non-native?
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just took a look at Titanium and holy moley their documentation was overwhelming. I haven't used a "native" hybrid app framework yet (only have experience with ionic), but NativeScript looks a bit more accessible to me than Titanium does.
I say the documentation is pretty ok once you get familiar with how the API is laid out. And for everything else they have the developer QA section, which is like a self-hosted stack-overflow. I've been building a couple of simple apps on it the last few months, and it has been a pleasure. I should be clear here -- I've been using Titanium, not Alloy.
I agree, Titanium classic is really great to work with once you get up and running. I tried Alloy but quickly realized it slows things down and makes it harder to develop.
So, lesson for me was use titanium classic and NOT Alloy.
Also, I would advise building your own small framework with views (things like title bars etc). Just makes it so much easier to make it look and work exactly how you want on iOS and Android.
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cordova, which uses HTML in a WebView paradigm, lets you wrap native API's as plugins, so you can access them from JavaScript. You can access most (all?) native functionality from within JS using either Corfova-supplied or third party plugins. Honestly, Cordova + Ionic/Angular has been a great experience so far. Very few problems and a super quick time to market. I can't imagine iterating as quickly for two platforms…
Yes, but you don't get a native UI with hybrid solutions like Cordova. Also, in order to use native APIs, you have to create special wrappers for them, whereas in NativeScript, it looks like you can call the APIs directly. (How this affects performance, I don't know.)
How does calling API's directly work with different platforms using different names, calling conventions, etc.? I like that with Cordova someone already did the work of normalizing the native calls.
Agreed about the lack of native UI. Things like Ionic help, but it is not 100% perfect by any means.
Re: Nativescript: Build truly native apps with JavaScript
#60Is it actually "native" if it is a JS interpreter passing calls into the runtime? Yes, it is native widgets and UI, but the "brains" of the operation are seemingly outside. PS - I have no idea what I'm talking about.
Native is mostly about widgets and UI -- which is what matters to the user. Else even Objective-C apps, with the Obj-C messaging system are not native, e.g. they delegate a lot to C-based APIs...
Native means ur apps gets compiled to binary during compilation process, and not scripts being interpreted by a vm at runtime.