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iOS / Android cross platform development

Asked 2011-05-29T23:32:51.973
114

I've been playing around with developing Android apps in Java for a while and am starting to get a handle on it. However if I want to on start on an iOS version I need to code everything from scratch - which is, well, undesirable.

I was wondering on what cross platform solutions there are available and how well they work in practice. I've been thinking about web applications - perhaps using jQuery Mobile or Titanium, or Adobe Flash/Flex/Air. I also don't yet have a Mac, which I'll probably have to invest in.

So my Questions :

  1. What cross-platform development environments exist for iOS / Android (and/or other devices)?

  2. What has your experience been with these tools? (this is what I'm really keen to know)

android ios cross-platform
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2 Answers

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My experience with making something very simple in PhoneGap+jQuery Mobile was fine. I was able to do it quickly for iOS. However, it didn't work on my Android phones without making some changes. The project was a very simple app to take pictures and post them to a web site. And at the end of the day it felt "clunky" compared to a true native app.

I don't believe there will ever be easy cross platform development. I think the browser is as close as you will get. By choosing something like PhoneGap I think you are just trading one set of pain points for a different set of pain points.

answered 2011-05-30T02:05:44.807
2

There is also BatteryTech which we've been using for the past 18 months and have released several games off of it. http://www.batterypoweredgames.com/batterytech

All C++, Android and iOS support, all users get full source. The new v2 includes lua bindings.

answered 2012-05-02T17:58:12.397

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