I decided to go back to an old stand-by with mobile development, in particular Android. But now what has been frazzling my brain is whether to use the regular Java path, or an HTML5 path. Since I don't plan on making any 3D games for quite some time, OpenGL ES and native C/C++ code is of no importance. But basically here is how I break both down:
Java for Android:
Pros:
* The most supported, obviously.
* Access to all native and Google APIs, for things such as location services, Google Maps, etc.
* Access to all hardware functionality, such as GPS, accelerometer, NFS, and more.
* Possibly better performance.
Cons:
* Sometimes dealing with poor design decisions (more on that below).
* Performance out of Java may not be much be much better than HTML5, since best performance is with OpenGL in C.
* Poor porting path to other platforms. Basically stuck as Java for Android.
HTML5 for Android:
Pros:
* Most apps and games do not need more than HTML5 provides.
* App Mobi tools claim to bridge the gap to native functionality.
* Much better path to being cross-platform. iOS, WP7, Blackberry versions and others will in some cases be a button click away.
* Future platforms are aiming square at HTML5, such as Windows 8 and Firefox Mobile OS.
* Apps can be posted to the web with the same code.
* Simpler development.
Cons:
* Less support and community. Whether using App Mobi or Phone Gap, that is basically your entire community.
* Access to native and Google APIs may be limited.
* Access to some hardware beyond the touch screen will be limited.
* Potential for slightly lower performance.
When I mentioned occasional poor design choices, check out this Dalvik Java code:
Code: Select all
@Override
protected Dialog onCreateDialog(int id) {
switch (id) {
case 0:
return new AlertDialog.Builder(this)
.setIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
.setTitle(“This is a dialog with some simple text...”)
.setPositiveButton(“OK”,
new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton)
{
Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
“OK clicked!”, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
)
.setNegativeButton(“Cancel”,
new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int whichButton)
{
Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
“Cancel clicked!”, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
)
.setMultiChoiceItems(items, itemsChecked,
new DialogInterface.OnMultiChoiceClickListener() {
public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog,
int which, boolean isChecked) {
Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
items[which] + (isChecked ? “ checked!”:” unchecked!”),
Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}
}
).create();
}
return null;
}
}It is displaying a dialog box with 3 strings and a radio group. Yes, I am serious. Basically the same dialog you can create in .NET in 2 lines of code takes this whole ugly garbled mess in Android because the UI is completely made of XML. Wow, I wish JSON had come first so we didn't have to deal with XML. In HTML5 the same results could be done so much more cleanly in about 1/3 the lines or less.
Anyway, does anyone have any input on the Android app path? I am really leaning more towards HTML5 at the moment. I already own Impact and an App Mobi XDK account, so either way I go is no cost to me. It just seems like things are easier the HTML5 way, plus the added bonus of extremely cross-platform compatibility with 1 set of code.
I have an iPod Touch to test on, but not a Mac to compile native iOS apps. That is hopefully where App Mobi's cloud compilation services will come into play. Being able to spread apps on both app stores surely couldn't be a bad thing!