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Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

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Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#71

Post by afavour »

klausa wrote: post #31
scotty79 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit like asking which power company has pretty technicians.

We're in a thread talking about a technology that purports to make creating "native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website"; and the parent claimed that the Alipay/WeChats mini-app stacks are similar. I don't think asking for examples of this resulting in an experience that's pleasant is unreasonable?

I think the point OP is making is that the relative pleasantry of the experience isn't as important for end users as it is for us developers. My anecdotal experience bears that out: I shudder when I see a web-heavy native app, my non-tech friends don't bat an eyelid. People learn UIs, no matter how janky, very quickly if the end goal is important to them.

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#72

Post by donatj »

jsiepkes wrote: post #18

"Serve your app as XML" As someone who started his professional career in 2005: All the old is new again.

Literally. I wrote a fair number of Konfabulator widgets in the early aughts this way. I did a bit of Adobe Air like this as well, everyone insisted it was THE FUTURE, it wasn't.

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#73

Post by magic_smoke_ee »

jsiepkes wrote: post #18

"Serve your app as XML" As someone who started his professional career in 2005: All the old is new again.

Someone will inevitably create an app to create apps using Brainfuck encoded in Morse code running on a 16-QAM wireless protocol... just beam your app with your data.

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#74

Post by 52-6F-62 »

satvikpendem wrote: post #15
sibeliuss wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Server components + RN + Expo.... Could it get any more pointlessly complicated?

Just because there are multiple technologies does not make it complicated per se. Indeed, something could evolve to a simpler model, which it seems RSC on RN is.

Doesn’t it require Expo’s servers for a development environment?

All these companies have given up on the gold rush long ago and are just slinging fancy shovels.

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#75

Post by trey-jones »

Using web technology to build "native" mobile apps has been around almost as long as mobile apps themselves. I used Appcelerator Titanium and Phonegap to do this beginning in 2012 (maybe even 2011) before eventually trying Native development later after finding these options underwhelming.

I have a reasonable amount of experience doing both, and my opinion is that development tools aren't really the problem. The biggest pain point is the platform specific deployment and maintenance requirements (including legal and technical documentation) that will be needed regardless of what technology you use to actually build the product. Because of this I always advise clients that they don't really need a mobile app. Just build it on the web.

If you absolutely must have a mobile app, you need to fully commit and hire an internal development team and be prepared to keep paying them as long as the app is going to be in use.

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#76

Post by z2 »

YuukiRey wrote: post #68
TeMPOraL wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like you can choose in the West either, either :). Number one goal of any software service today is to make its offering exclusive in some way - exclusive content, exclusive deals, exclusive integrations, exclusive set of participants (network effects), going super-broad super fast because infinite VC money lets you keep operating at a loss indefinitely, etc.

You're making it sound as if the difference in choice between China and western countries is negligible. Surely that's not the case? If every VC company tries to pull you into their walled garden, I can still choose from among a variety of said walled gardens. I could be wrong of course, since I don't know how many AliPay and WeChat competitors there are.

The competitors at the consumer-facing super app level (with mini programs of varying awkwardness) include Meituan, XiaoHongShu, and to an extent, Toutiao, JD.com, and Baidu. But you don't need those gardens as a publisher if you're on Android--ironically because Google services are banned, there are over a dozen app stores to competing to fill the void. Compare that with the western duopoly of Apple App Store and Google Play.

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#78

Post by magic_smoke_ee »

xarope wrote: post #34
beagle3 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And XML is essentially lobotomized and extra verbose Lisp S-expressions, going back to the 1960’s

don't talk about my thesis, written in LaTeX, like that... /j

Back in my day, real cowboys wrote their papers in PostScript, making their papers as inaccessible as possible for user of consumer-grade devices. /s

PS won on human readability and editability but lost on portability to Adobe's own internal competitor, PDF, and because it fought and lost to (La)TeX -> PDF & (La)TeX -> DVI -> PS.

PS: I once printed out and bound the PDF 1.3 spec[0] on 24 lbs. bleached dead trees on an HP LaserJet IIIP with over a million page count. Some of the nuclear engineers and scientists an office containing every week.

0. https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/pdfstandard...

Re: Hyperview – Native mobile apps, as easy as creating a website

#80

Post by happytoexplain »

>as easy as creating a website

This strikes me as odd - I have a much easier time making a well-functioning native app (iOS or Android) than the equivalent website. That's not typically a checkmark in the web column for web vs app pros and cons.

Unless we're including distribution when we say "creating".

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