Any app developers here?

[jhadley]

Wondering if there are any app developers here, and specifically what your thoughts are on PhoneGap.

 

[wdq]

I'm not extremely familiar with it but one of the projects for the company I work for is using it and it seems to work well for them. From what I have seen PhoneGap seems like one of the better ways to make web apps for various different mobile platforms.

The problem with these sorts of web frameworks for mobile is that it's impossible to give these apps the true native feel that they would get if they were coded specifically for each platform using the native SDK's and native UI elements. 

 

[wlanboy]

It depends on what you want to do.

A lot of big corps failed in creating one app for all plattforms (hybrids). They all try, fail and create native apps.

PhoneGap and co are just creating HTML5 + JS apps running on their enhanced browser.

 

[jcaleb]

i dont code mobile. but my colleague does. phonegap written apps are slow he says. only suitable for simple apps

 

[walesmd]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with it being slow; you do need to be much more cautious of what you're doing. You don't have all the freely available overhead on a mobile device, or network, to load 30 css files and 14 JavaScript from 5 different servers all over the world.

Anytime someone mentions PhoneGap my first question is: do you really need an app? I'm of the opinion 95% of apps should have never been an app - it's a website, that is all. Your efforts would be more efficiently focused on building an awesome, responsive, website that serves your purpose. With that being said, if you absolutely must have an app - for a functional requirement - you can do a lot worse than PhoneGap and it's what I would choose (with native out of the question).

I wish Android would make it a lot easier, more intuitive, to add a website icon to your launcher. That, plus a decent "web store" like we have on Chrome Desktop and you'd see the app-boners disappear pretty quickly.

 

[drmike]

I'm of the opinion 95% of apps should have never been an app - it's a website, that is all. Your efforts would be more efficiently focused on building an awesome, responsive, website that serves your purpose.

 

+1 for this.

 

[jcaleb]

agree that many times there is no need for app but just a website. but sometimes business owners wants one to be developed, and the money is good

 

[drmike]

True @jcaleb, sad but true.

I just love the Droid dance... I can't install that app, cause I am out of space.... Doh!  So many hurdles, so little time, patience and space

 

[mojeda]

I'm of the opinion 95% of apps should have never been an app - it's a website, that is all. Your efforts would be more efficiently focused on building an awesome, responsive, website that serves your purpose.

Agreed, it's getting much easier as well, with the help of Bootstrap or jQuery Mobile.

 

[jarland]

I've got a few years on trying everything possible to develop iOS apps without spending too much time on ObjC. I ended up learning it, doing pretty decent with it, then threw it out when I found this: http://www.redfoundry.com (Android/iOS)


You will be hard pressed to find something so capable, simplistic, and native as this. Just my opinion of course. These things are quite relative to how you've trained your mind. My problem is that I try to be the visionary and the coder, and some of us just can't pull off both of those as well as we'd like.

 

[jcaleb]

Android is much harder to develop with than J2ME. I had a few J2ME games before published here in my country, and it was fun squeezing a good game out of very low power cpu and RAM. I miss J2ME days.

 

[concerto49]

Android is much harder to develop with than J2ME. I had a few J2ME games before published here in my country, and it was fun squeezing a good game out of very low power cpu and RAM. I miss J2ME days.

LibGDX makes it quite easy.