mosync c++ or javascript - mosync

Is the performance of apps developed in mosync same c++ same as those developed with html5 and javascript.
What are the pros and cons of using c++ or using javascript.
Regards,
Pankaj

in short answer "No"!
When you are using the c++, you actually work with CPU (or at least Operating System), but if you write your programs with "HTML", an extra layer has been added.
The browser(Webkit in android and Iphone) interpret html/js and specially in android there is an obvious reduction in speed (its better on android 4.x but mosync doesn't support it by now )!
But designing User Interface in HTML is easy! and for simple applications its worth it IMO!

Related

phonegap vs objective-c web-kit

Can somebody tell me what are pros and cons when developing with phonegap or objective-c and web-kit. In other words, if you want to develop (html,css,js) based application is it better to develop it in phonegap or in objective-c with
First, google "Native vs web-app". There are several good guides and comparisons out there, and much of what you will do in phonegap is in the web-app domain. The pros with using web-technology is that it is easier to port to other platforms, it also lets you use HTML, CSS and Javascript some Apache declarations and other snacks that probably will be relatively stable in the years to come instead of learning Objective-C, Java and a lot of APIs. One of the great things about native apps is speed (perhaps not the biggest issue for most applications), it is also some functionality which can't be achieved through the browser or web-app runtime (that's where Phonegap tries to fill the gap). Also, the developers of each of the various mobile-OS make a lot of convenient shortcuts and tools which you perhaps would have to emulate through web-technologies.

Best way to convert/port other platform games developed in other languages like C++ etc in iphone?

In order to port games in to iphone, I dont thing complete Objective C coding is required. As I have seen most popular games which were on other devices or on other platform. Now converting exactly to iphone.
Is it there any tool for it ?
There are a few different tools out there that allow you to develop once and deploy to multiple platforms. Some of these are full engines, like UDK, Torque, and the aforementioned Unity. There are also tools like PhoneGap and Adobe Air, which allow you to develop using web technologies, and then convert to mobile apps.
Of course, sometimes you have to just write your code using C++ and OpenGL, and port it to each platform individually. This will allow for a bit more control and performance in some cases, and might allow for better access to the API of each device, but the trade off is that it'll take a bit of time to port.
I think this is easiest accomplished by creating a platform independant C/C++ library which can than be linked to from Objective C or loaded with JNI on Android systems.
But I don't think that there is a translator for languages, since the APIs are very different.
Another option is to create the game with a language independent game engine like Unity (which is commercial btw).

Is Titanium bugfree? and is it equally compatible for developing iOS apps as XCode and Objective-c?

Few days back i was pretty much sure that Titanium is a great IDE for developing iOS apps but in last few days i have gone through few articles about Titanium and some of these articles pointed that Titanium is not fully featured for iOS development and it is buggy as well.
SO i came here to my StackOverflow friends to know is it true? does someone really faced any problem or encountered any bug while developing an iOS app using Titanium.
Please Advise about should i use it or should i go for Objective-C?
Thanks.
I believe Titanium is probably more buggy than native Cocoa Touch libraries and is, by definition, not fully featured as native Objective-C development.
The main question before you choose your development way is: will you in future ever consider to port your iOS application to Android? If the answer is 'yeah!' and you don't know Java, but you are more familiar with web technologies like CSS, Javascript and HTML/HTML5 rather than C/C++/Objective-C, I think the natural choice should be Titanium.
On other hand, if you're quick in learning new languages and have some good experience with C/C++, Objective-C is the way - later on you probably can quickly learn Java and jump into Android platform.
Second criteria is: is Titanium capable of delivering UI/UX you'd like to have in your apps? Titanium successful stories can help you answer that question - Titanium: Applications Showcase. Also try many native apps check what they offer. Compare and make decisions.
Important: I've never tried Titanium myself. I just face the similar dilemma as you. I want to extend my mobile app dev skills into Android world and consider Titanium as one of ways to go (I know basic JavaScript/CSS/HTML5, but not Java).
EDIT: I've just checked out your profile and it seems you're coming from Android world. I'd add to my answer: if learning Java was easy for you and you're already familiar with ups&downs of Java development for Android, learning Objective-C should be easy. The main difference is that in iOS you have to manage memory yourself and it can be a little painful.
Some good stuff:
1. Memory Management Programming Guide
2. Learning Objective-C: A Primer
3. The Objective-C Programming Language
Titanium basically uses JavaScript for developing application in iOS and Android. If you are comfortable working in JavaScript and CSS you can try Titanium.
Its my personal opinion, try learning Objective C, its really great language. If you have knowledge of C or C++, then understanding the concepts of Objective C becomes easier.
Try Objective C, you won't be disappointed.
I'm using Titanium (and have been playing with it for a few months) and can say with definitive emphasis that it's buggy as hell. :-) If you're looking for a single-platform solution, ie only Android or iOS, and plan on only supporting that single platform, it's a no-brainer to avoid TiStudio.
What Titanium is trying to do is to abstract and simplify the underlying nature of the platform you're on. It doesn't do this fabulously, but for simple apps, I've had lots of success.
That said, because it's attention is split amongst three (with Blackberry support incoming) platforms, it will always lag behind the native dev systems, and always lack in advanced features. That's the trade-off.
All that said, TiStudio is lightyears better than TiDeveloper (Appcelerator bought Aptana and is now in the process of integrating Titanium development with the Aptana IDE), and they're really working hard to make the platform top-notch.
I've landed on it as a platform due to my abject hatred of Java (after two months trying to relearn Java using the native IDE path) and my desire to do cross-platform development. I'm also confident I can route around the Titanium bugs/flaws as I'm basically writing my own app development framework on top of the Titanium SDK, so I can automate things that suck, fix errant behaviors, etc. It's a lot of work.
But that's basically where mobile development is right now. You pick your poison. Stick with a native SDK and be locked into one platform and have to deal with an annoying language (both Java and Objective C are ancient by modern Python/Ruby/whatever standards), or try something like Titanium which offers simplicity and a more flexible language, but is less tightly integrated an more buggy.
Best of luck!

PhoneGap vs. Titanium

PhoneGap and Titanium allow you build native iPhone Apps based on HTML and JavaScript.
Has anyone gained experience with both? What are the differences?
There is a pretty lengthy discussion about PhoneGap VS Titanium (and Corona) on StackOverflow already that might be useful.
One of the big differences is that PhoneGap is MIT licensed and Titanium is (just recently changed) Apache licensed.
This article is a good summary of the practical and philosophical differences. Note its from an Appcelerator evangelist, but I still think its pretty impartial. In fact I think he shares Titanium more warts that I probably would :).
http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/05/comparing-titanium-and-phonegap.html
It's probably worth following the current Apple/Adobe spat, in which Mr Jobs has put the future of products that aren't written in language XYZ in the balance. OS 4 SDK states:
Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
I believe Titanium is affected by this.
Well..! this is not certain that which is better to implement the project.
Both technologies are new and having their pros & cons as well.
Titanium says to keep native environment with the help of java Script Based framework, on the other hand the phoneGap provides everything inside the WebView, you only need to put your web based project having index.html inside the WWW folder, found in the project directory structure of the Project.
So if you comfortable with Web Works, phoneGap is suitable in this case otherWise you should go with Titanium.Its easier to use and fully facilitated.
Unfortunately Titanium is not opensource anymore. You can develop apps freely but You have to buy Indie account to publish an app to appstore which cost some money.
PhoneGap is a free and open source framework that allows you to create mobile apps using web APIs for any platforms (iOS, android,windows, Blackberry etc) you think of.
Titanium: Is a cross platform, where in the code you write in JS and Titanium API's will be converted to native code and look and feel of the app will be same as native apps.
PhoneGap: Is a hybrid platform, where in you write the code using web technologies like JS, HTML and CSS. Which uses web views present in the native devices to render the UI. Look and feel is not same as native apps.

Dev efforts for different mobile platforms

I'm in the middle of development of a client-server "socializing" that is supposed to run on several mobile devices. The project is pretty complex, involving networking, exchanging media, using geolocation services, and nice user UI.
In terms of development efforts, technical risks and extensibility what is the best platform to start with? Taking into the account that the goal is go "live" as fast as possible with the mobile version. And second goal is to cover most users (but first is more important).
iPhone (iPod iPad)
Android
BlackBerry
Java ME,
Symbian
I realize that there are limitations on every platform, and there are different aspects to take into the account (for example iPhone has better developer's community then Android, J2ME runs in a terrible sandbox but covers most devices).
Please share your pros and cons. I have the experience only with J2ME, unfortunately I can't evaluate other platforms.
If you're looking at native applications on the platforms you list, then the development effort required in order from least to most is:
iPhone
Android
Blackberry
Java ME
Symbian
Development effort is largely governed by language/libraries, tooling and fragmentation. Hence iPhone wins (good language & libraries, excellent tooling, little/no fragmentation). Symbian comes last (C++ with limited libraries, poor tools, large fragmentation). Android beats Blackberry on libraries and fragmentation, and Blackberry beats Java ME on fragmentation.
The counterpoint to this is market size, especially among your target user base - Java ME reaches far more devices than any other platform, whereas the Android installed base is still the smallest of the 5.
There's no one right answer, but if reach is important then Java is a good place to start, if time-to-market and user experience are the keys then iPhone makes sense.
It's also worth looking at how easy/difficult it would be to port across to other platforms. There are various cross-platform libraries around such as Airplay or J2ME Polish that might reduce the costs - provided you can implement your application on the cross-platform part.
I'd like to speak up for Maemo/Meego(Nokia's/Intel's mobile Linux). While it is in a state of transition and currently Maemo 5 has only one good phone(and a couple of cheap Chinese ones), but I feel that it will soon be big(I like many people believe that Meego will be Nokia's high end strategy and Nokia is the biggest phone maker in the world). Plus the N900 is the coolest phone around.
Also their it basically an open Linux device (pretty similar to standard desktop Linux). The ide QT Creator is great and cross-platform(comes with embedded visual designer and nice documentation broser) but you don't have to use it, there is some support for using your own text editor or ide.
There is no sort of signing key nonsense(I did a student project for the blackberry and have been quite annoyed by keys). Other things I didn't like about the blackberry: windows only eclipse plugins, our team had a lot of trouble figuring out how to add third party libraries to blackberry COD archives . Also some of the Classes are somewhat sparse in a lot of ways especially String/Char, probably since its ME based, I also didn't like the file read/write apis, it felt somewhat awkward, possibly since blackberry apps only recently got the ability to store files(before you could only store/retrieve objects to disk via the persistence layer)..
The preferred Languages are (Gobject C currently but less so for Meego) , Qt flavoured C++ and python. There libraries are nice and the qt ones are especially well documented. Since its a tiny linux box you can have on device debugging (there is also an emulator).
Note I haven't developed anything for Maemo/Meego but I've read a lot about and just fell in love.
I think that the best solution might be to start with a smartphone optimized web site. A native app can provide a richer interface, but a well designed web app can come close and will run on any device.
Have a look at the WPTouch for an example of a very good phone optimized web site.
In line with Roman A. Taycher, I'd like to raise my voice for windows Mobile/Windows Phone. It's has a large installed base, it has the tried and true Visual Studio toolset to develop with, it has the best emulator of them all (it actually emulates the ARM instruction set - you hear that, Apple?), and you can leverage your Win32 experience.
MS-haters - please don't bother responding. I've heard them all.
A cross-platform runtime such as Qt or HTML5 are good bets and are portable.
Qt supports many platforms including Symbian, Meego, Linux, Windows etc. It is highly regarded as one of the best programming frameworks around currently.
Qt creator is also a very highly regarded IDE.
HTML can be accessed on nearly everything of course and can there are plethora of tools out there.
While applications natively developed for a given platform typically win in terms of platform UI consistency and performance, you could try going for one of the available multi-platform frameworks, such as Rhodes (just to name one). Personally, I do not have any specific experience with Rhodes and only learned about it a couple of days ago (having a closer look is still on my todo list), so please judge the user experience that the framework offers on different devices on your own.
It sounds like you need Mobile Community Framework (MCF). It is cross-platform framework to develop network-centric, location- and proximity-aware applications on all modern smartphone platforms (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, WinMo - almost all you mentioned, except J2ME). It provide native binaries for all these platforms. With MCF development time can be reduced, as you don't need to code all this network stuff by yourself, but you can just use simple API to send any amounts of data across enrypted connections, via Wi-Fi ad-hoc mode or via special proxy-server.
More info at http://www.uvamobiltec.com.