Native stack is tailored for native devices, using web for that is just not as reliable/maintainable/cost efficient in my opinion. Sure, you can have less devs to support both platforms, but as soon as you need some hardware functionalities, you're not gonna have much of an options, besides what web tech libs you have in the store.
Write code for the web
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Re: Write code for the web
#62I like the author's healthy attitude towards large corporations - basic modern survival skill. If I had my way, I would not have to install any apps on my iPhone or iPads but platform limitations make this a requirement. I noticed that on Safari, the X/Twitter web app is not playing videos, even after I turned off Lockdown Mode for X. Is this Apple's fault for a platform inconsistency or X trying to force users to in…
> ClojureScript + Dart
Ignore people who write about finding the perfect stack. The perfect stack does not exist and it is not requisite for shipping great software that real users value.
Much of web development consists of knowing the browser well, and web.dev is a great resource for that. Beyond that just go and learn React + TypeScript, the new react.dev is great. While React is not perfect it’s such a good paradigm for creating UI that even Apple copied it when they created SwiftUI. Grab yourself Vite and get coding.
The number one thing that I would recommend is to really go and study those resources. Start from page one of the docs and work your way through. There’s not much that you’re going to learn in a few days though, frontend work is hard for a good reason.
Re: Write code for the web
#63The $100 developer fee is very annoying, but understand it's there to add a small barrier to entry. It makes people think twice about whether they really want to launch an app on the app store and therefore stops many users from publishing junk apps.
Re: Write code for the web
#64Early on, I made the choice to not to invest in learning native mobile development. I focused all my limited time on the web, and I think that, for once, I made the right choice. Today, one can build amazing stuff for the browser. And, in my very humble opinion, the vast majority of apps should've been WebApps — except for maybe Uber, Google Drive, and games. I worked in the journalism business, and, in my country, t…
So tired of junk apps cluttering up my phone and tablet. Examples: There's a parking station near me that has an app, the library photocopier has an app. Could all be done on the web.
I also don't understand why a parking meter needs an app, it should have a QR code>web>stripe payment (or a text to pay), rather than 2 buggy apps on iPhone and Android, which require data to download
Re: Write code for the web
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This was some years ago This is probably worse today, they're all the time throwing more roadblocks to avoid people to publish apps in their "ecosystem", except if you're a large US company that can easily handle the paperwork.
I have never understood how Apple gets away with it and even more than that gets a huge amount of love. Whereas, if Microsoft just looks at you wrong, pitchforks are out. I'm not cheerleading any company here, but it has been frustrating in my career where people absolutely refuse to touch or even consider anything Microsoft related but love their Apple computer. Apple is probably hundreds of times more agressive, mo…
Apple's entire stock in trade is "computing as it should be". Their stuff is the coolest platform ever to exist, which means that developing for their gear is like getting into Studio 54: only the hottest and coolest are allowed in, permitting anything less would tarnish the club's reputation. Which sucks for most devs but it's part of being the coolest.
Microsoft just wants to dominate. They don't care if the UX is garbage, as long as the user doesn't have a choice.
Re: Write code for the web
#66Apple provides thousands of APIs to make developing on the platform easier, has created their own programming language that integrates nicely with the platform and has a fully integrated IDE that works with both above. Sure, buddy… They don’t care about you unless you develop for their platform. And who can blame? The above is a terribly expensive and timely investment.
You left out that they lock down anything that isn't those things. I tried developing an app of my own on macOS, not using Swift and their tools, and it's a huge pain. They have deprecated and version locked OpenGL for no other reason than to push their own tools. Trying to just get an external DLL to load was nearly impossible. Anything cross-platform needs to be converted down to their tooling, such as Vulkan to Me…
This. Apple has been slowly, relentlessly, sneakily squeezing out any open or cross platform dev options.
If you want to develop for Apple's devices, you have to sacrifice your future career options with any other tech stack/vendor by investing your limited time into skills that are only relevant in the Apple ecosystem.
Then you have to hope that it's still financially viable to do software dev in Apple's world for the next few decades - which given their demonstrated behavior of scraping back more and more of the pie for themselves and their shareholders, seems like a risky bet.
Re: Write code for the web
#67[quote]Ironically Google is the good guy here, they’re doing great work for the web. On the other hand, literally every single workaround I’ve had to write in the recent past in web related code has been due to Safari's princessness.[/quote]
There's no mention of Firefox or other browsers (except Safari because he hates it) so my conclusion is that 'for the web' means 'for Chrome'.
So it's not 'write code for the web because Apple hates you', it's 'write code for Google'. Doesn't look like such a good idea to me.
Re: Write code for the web
#68For everyone that comes into Apple as an outsider, specially after iPhone and OS X saved the company, I advise getting "The Cult of Mac" https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1341309 Those are the developers and users Apple cares about.
Obviously I can’t speak for others, but I was, for a long time, a part of this world (parents bought a Quadra as our first home computer in 1993, I had a colored iMac in 1999, I released a few crappy freeware OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” desktop apps as a teenager, had an early iPod and an early iPhone, shipped a couple of iOS apps, watched keynote livestreams, actively participated on the MacRumors forums etc etc), yet I have become increasingly frustrated with Apple’s approach and have switched to using Linux on my primary (non-Mac) computer.
I don’t feel like Apple cares about my business in the slightest. Macs have become increasingly locked down in both software and hardware, and the level of control Apple wants over what end users can do with their hardware feels more onerous than ever. When that book came out, being a Mac user felt like being part of a fun community of oddballs (I was one of like 5 or 10 in my school of 600), which is absolutely nothing like today.
Re: Write code for the web
#69>The dependency goes Developer -> Apple and Apple -> Consumer, there is no reverse arrow from Apple to the developers.
Is that really true? If Apple is abandoned by large developers (let's say of Adobe, Microsoft calibre), does it not harm their sales or revenue?
It certainly isn't universally true. For young or new platforms, like the transition to ARM a few years ago, or the Vision Pro today, Apple needs developer adoption to be successful.
Of course, it's existing success on other platforms almost ensures a certain degree of developer engagement with their new products.
Re: Write code for the web
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never understood how Apple gets away with it and even more than that gets a huge amount of love. Whereas, if Microsoft just looks at you wrong, pitchforks are out. I'm not cheerleading any company here, but it has been frustrating in my career where people absolutely refuse to touch or even consider anything Microsoft related but love their Apple computer. Apple is probably hundreds of times more agressive, mo…
Apple's entire stock in trade is "computing as it should be". Their stuff is the coolest platform ever to exist, which means that developing for their gear is like getting into Studio 54: only the hottest and coolest are allowed in, permitting anything less would tarnish the club's reputation. Which sucks for most devs but it's part of being the coolest. Microsoft just wants to dominate. They don't care if the UX is…
> Which sucks for most devs but it's part of being the coolest.
What if we determine that the "coolness" motivation is a scapegoat for anticompetitive behavior?
AT&T could have argued the same thing but I'm not sure if the coolness of their infrastructure would have saved them from a breakup.