Cross platform mobile development?

by TinPete

Posted: 12 years ago 18 replies

PROGRAMMING

Hi everyone,

Can anyone point me in the right direction if me and some technically oriented friends wanted to learn how to develop cross-platform mobile apps (and possibly some desktop apps)?

We are just looking for some ideas on technologies we should start exploring... I know different environments have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the type of app we go with.

An overview on what folks are using and what you guys think of them for pros and cons would be extremely helpful.

We have ideas all over the place from games, to utilities to business and want to see what options are out there and what folks think of them before we pick one and try to bring it to life.

Thanks!

- Pete

#cross #development #mobile #platform

TheCrazyCoder 12 years ago

Actually you are looking to be A CODER. Learn basics of applications development.

There are many solutions allowing multiform development.

Java - supported by any known platform
C++ - use frameworks like Qt or wxWidgets
Flex/Flash, HTML5, JavaScript - no comment

Any of them have one or more IDE, but all will allow you to use notepad for development.

Perhaps start with Eclipse(java plugins) as totally free solution to start.
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heslil 12 years ago

HTML5+javascript is the most commonly used technology to develop cross-platform apps. There are some other frameworks/technologies too, like Adobe Air or Kivy (Python).
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wondercoder 12 years ago

You can use html5 and css for creating cross platform apps. I would say html5 is very good one and you should get nice editor for it too
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- wardo 12 years ago
  
  Check out a free website called code academy, it's great. You can learn everything you need to get started and do online tests as you follow along.
  
  Thanks
  
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  renoldscott 12 years ago
  
  I suggest you HTML and CSS for code.
  
  Thanks
  
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herminiahdalton 12 years ago

Start learning the Application Development,there are various videos available online for these purposes.java is an object oriented language which provide a rich set of cross platform utilities,and Android also uses Java basic.Therefore try to learn Programming language like Java and its never mobile version Android.
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Jason Evans

12 years ago

There are a variety of tools for cross platform mobile development such as:

PhoneGap - HTML, CSS, JS -> Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Black Berry
Titanium - HTML, CSS, JS -> Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Desktop
Corona - Lau (from memory) -> Android, iOS
Xamarin - C# -> Android, iOS, Windows phone and of course C# can be used to develop desktop apps.

However for each of the above tools there are varying pro's and cons which you need to understand depending on your overall needs. For example games and business apps "may" have different requirements.

Most of the above do some magic compilation which may mean apps are bigger or slower than more native apps, or you have functionality which may be limited to core functions of each phone.

The biggest issue in my believe is the idiosyncrasies between different phone types and how cross platform may lack the ability to cope with this. For example screen size difference in Android compared to just a few in the iOS realm, and usability patterns.

However if none of those items are an issue then they may be a good start for cross platform development. Most of tools if not all have a free version so you can try them out.

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

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TinPete

12 years ago

Thanks, everyone.

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to share your advice with me.

Does anyone have any additional thoughts on Adobe Air?

Thanks!

- Pete

Thanks
1 reply

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Jason Evans

12 years ago

Originally Posted by TinPete

Thanks, everyone.

I really appreciate you guys taking the time to share your advice with me.

Does anyone have any additional thoughts on Adobe Air?

Thanks!

- Pete

It is my understanding that Adobe Air needs to be installed on the device, this may be a barrier to entry for some and adds complexity to deploying your app. There also seems to be some concern over memory use and speed. It does have it's advantages like AS3 etc.

Thanks

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OnlineBusinessAffiliates 12 years ago

Gamemaker: Studio (yoyogames) may interest you. You write your program in their language (similar to Javascript), and you can export it as an Android .apk or iOS file when done. It's probably the easiest to learn (even has a lot of drag & drop), and you can download it for free (limited version), and see if it's a good fit. It will cost you to get the modules to do Android & iOS, though. Also, I don't know what kind of apps you want to make, but Gamemaker is limited. It's in sandboxed mode, so you can't interact with some of the mobile device's features, like the camera.

I hope this helps,
Eric
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Check out my games for Android: INTP games
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kingjpm 12 years ago

chrome got this cool little tool called emulation,

ctrl+shift+j
then click console
then emulation
pick what you want to emulate

add this inside your <head> HTML tag.. <meta name="viewport" content="width=320, initial-scale=1">

this will set the default viewport width

then sniff the screen width with JavaScript to determine the width
and adjust the containers width CSS on the fly to fit the width

should help get you started with some idea with Responsive Design for mobile browsing
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Steve3214 12 years ago

There are many platforms in which you can develop app for mobile along with if you want to know something about genuine ways of mobile Application Development then you can take help of many companies. You can take help of experts about the same matter as well.
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kingjpm 12 years ago
Say you want to hide an element that will not fit max width of 640px
HTML Code:

@media only screen and (max-width: 640px){ div#main {display:none;} }
Its really not hard and you can do it yourself, just learn the CSS tricks or use JavaScript to help
Think about what works best for your design
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funtoosh 12 years ago

Try Windev i'm using it, though currently i've not started using it for mobile development, currently just doing desktop softwares with it, but it's a really good development platform with it's own proprietary language, you can even check out xojo
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- pphillips001 12 years ago
  
  It's the same as any 'what language should I use' question. What technologies you pick should be driven by what you want to accomplish.
  
  If you are going for pure performance, you can never beat natively written apps for each platform. So you would be looking at Java for Android, Objective C for IOs, etc With a bit of Unity thrown into the mix.
  
  If you wish your apps to be basic, form driven affairs with the least amount of development for all platforms, then there are loads of mature cross platform apps like those already mentioned above.
  
  Thanks
  
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Rahulshrma 12 years ago

One of the finest Cross-platform tools for mobile development are often not a “one-size-fits-all” solution.
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Mr Bill 12 years ago

I just discovered www.Appery.io - Mobile App Builder for HTML5, iOS, iPhone, Android, & Windows Phones (free to start and try). It uses drag, drop and import (images...etc) to build your app and then renders it as a proper app with full code for all popular platforms.

I haven't completed my test app but am having fun exploring the builder. You can even preview it live as you go.
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JohnBrower 12 years ago

It is a good thing that you and your technical oriented friends wanted to develop cross-platform mobile apps. you need right guidence. You can use following platforms:
1. RhoMobile.
2. PhoneGap.
3. Appcelerator.
4. MoSync.
5. WidgetPad.
6. Whoop.
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Cross platform mobile development?

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