Anyone had experience with time-saving toolkits for Mobile Development?

I've done both iOS programming for iPad/iPhone and Android programming. All in the native platforms - Objective-C for iOS and Java for Android.  Conversion between the two is much easier than porting to basic or an other non-C-derived language, but still takes no small amount of effort.

There are toolkits that claim to make the development and porting much easier.  Specifically, MonoTouch by Novel and a tool called Sencha-touch.

Does anyone have an experience with these?

My past experience with toolkits that claim to save time has been much to the opposite.  Generally there is less initial development time, but maintainence becomes clumsy and cumbersome.

Any thoughts?

Views: 172

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Woods on May 27, 2012 at 8:41pm

But why not use phonegap?

Permalink Reply by Kevin Neelands on May 28, 2012 at 8:28am

Have you used phonegap?  And if you did. did it save man-hours in the long run?

Permalink Reply by Richard Dean on May 28, 2012 at 11:17am

Yes, I would also like to hear about other's experience with PhoneGap.

Kevin Neelands said:

Have you used phonegap?  And if you did. did it save man-hours in the long run?

Permalink Reply by Jackie Gleason on May 28, 2012 at 2:10pm
Phone gap and titanium are good although you would have to follow their convention. I would say givin you are used to working in a c-based language you just use c then just implement the UI in objective-c or java. Or even better use a open gl es based UI library then it will run on both (basically what some frameworks do). I have been toying lately with the idea of using node native modules compiled for arm but I am still working on that.


P.S. you can compile objective c natively on android but not all the cocoa libraries (uikit) are open sourced yet.
Permalink Reply by Vlad Sanchez on May 28, 2012 at 2:21pm

Check out Corona. Although it is mostly used for game development, I've known many people using it for database applications lately. I've attended their last Meetup and it was an inspiring experience.

I personally was looking to overcome the fragmentation issues. After the meetup I realized there are no silver bullets. It's even a topic many people avoid talking about.

I hope this helps. Try Corona, it's free to try and very cheap to use commercially.

Permalink Reply by Jackie Gleason on May 28, 2012 at 6:36pm
Corona looks interesting but -1 for needing to buy and -1 for not having a responsive website

RSS

Happy 10th year, JCertif!

Notes

Welcome to Codetown!

Codetown is a social network. It's got blogs, forums, groups, personal pages and more! You might think of Codetown as a funky camper van with lots of compartments for your stuff and a great multimedia system, too! Best of all, Codetown has room for all of your friends.

When you create a profile for yourself you get a personal page automatically. That's where you can be creative and do your own thing. People who want to get to know you will click on your name or picture and…
Continue

Created by Michael Levin Dec 18, 2008 at 6:56pm. Last updated by Michael Levin May 4, 2018.

Looking for Jobs or Staff?

Check out the Codetown Jobs group.

 

Enjoy the site? Support Codetown with your donation.



InfoQ Reading List

Taking the Technical Leadership Path

Technical leaders face challenges beyond individual contributor work: aligning with business on investments, managing systemic aspects, mentoring, and keeping up with a changing codebase. We need technical alignment—shared codestyle, implementation patterns, and standards—to avoid accidental complexity. Leadership grows through practicing skills, improving team issues, and acting as a role model.

By Ben Linders

AWS Hikes EC2 Capacity Block Rates by 15% in Uniform ML Pricing Adjustment

AWS has raised EC2 Capacity Block prices for ML by 15% across all regions, impacting GPU-based workloads. The uniform price hikes affect top-tier instances powered by NVIDIA GPUs, underscoring supply chain pressures and inflation. With limited alternatives, organizations face higher costs, emphasizing the need for effective workload optimization and cost management strategies.

By Steef-Jan Wiggers

Mistral Releases OCR 3 with Improved Accuracy on Handwritten and Structured Documents

Mistral has released Mistral OCR 3, the latest version of its optical character recognition model, focused on higher accuracy across a wide range of document types, including handwritten notes, forms, low-quality scans, and complex tables.

By Robert Krzaczyński

Django Releases Version 6.0 with Built-In Background Tasks and Native CSP Support

Django 6.0 has arrived, offering developers cutting-edge features like a built-in tasks framework, enhanced security with Content Security Policy, and template partials for modular design. This release supports Python 3.12 to 3.14, streamlining web app development while promoting clean, rapid design. Join the excitement as Django modernizes the landscape of web application development!

By Daniel Curtis

Presentation: Achieving a Culture That Works: Inclusive Leadership that Drives Lasting Success

Matthew Card discusses the intersection of leadership and inclusivity at the BBC. He explains how "changing the bar" rather than just raising it can transform team dynamics. Covering trust, psychological safety, and his "C.A.P.S." and "D.O.S.E." frameworks for resilience, he shares practical strategies for engineering leaders to eliminate toxic behaviors and empower diverse talent to thrive.

By Matthew Card

© 2026   Created by Michael Levin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service