

How To: Native iOS apps in Javascript - johnbender
http://matt.might.net/articles/how-to-native-iphone-ipad-apps-in-javascript/

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st3fan
The title of this HN posting is _very_ misleading. The title of the original
article is:

Create NATIVE-LOOKING iPhone/iPad applications from HTML, CSS and JavaScript

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johnbender
apologies, got to typing just a bit too fast.

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yoda_sl
You can definitely write some pure JS apps on iOS and bypass once for all the
AppStore review process but you have to keep in mind that the JS runtime does
not have yet access to all the API provided by the OS underneath. Here a a few
things & there are many more that you will not be able to access from JS:

\- camera/video

\- photo library

\- address book

\- embedding a smooth map view: you can get google maps to appear but it will
not be as smooth as the native MapKit control

\- all the goodness of CoreAnimation but the CSS animation on iOS made
tremendous progress in each release

\- speed: even if with iOS 4.3 and the Nitro engine JS is faster, the compiled
Objective-C / C / C++ will most likely be faster

\- re-use various existing runtime library (Facebook Connect/ DropBox / ...)

Please do nit think that I don't believe in pure web app on iOS or other
device. Some app can fit well the model abd make perfect sense to do as such,
but I will strongly recommend that before comitting to a 100% web app, check
that all the features you want to achieve are doable through JavaScript/CSS

~~~
ericz
Also, webkit's multitouch gesture support is rather terrible compared to the
iOS SDK's. Rotation and zoom with multi-touch worked, but was obviously not
native to anyone who used iOS devices on a regular basis. Expect jumpiness,
rotation about incorrect axis and similar hair pulling bugs.

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ericz
Bad title but the article is incredibly important for anyone building a mobile
website targeted at iOS. The included techniques are inexplicably difficult to
find, and even in Apple's own documentation.

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daleharvey
Yeh the title is a bit measleading, but the content is good, I have found
mobile web development to still be fairly immature and hard to find
information about, so this helps.

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DanielRibeiro
_Although, why you'd want to subject yourself to the app store approval
process when you don't have to is beyond me_

Maybe because this way you can use frameworks like Phonegap and Titanium
Appcelerator to enable access to things accelerometer, compass and other
native features.

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jpallen
Nice article, thanks. Is there anyway to have a smoother 'install' process
rather than just asking the user to bookmark your page?

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catshirt
those who were intrigued but deceived by the title should check out
appcelerator [1]

[1] <http://www.appcelerator.com/>

