
Trigger Raises $1M From SV, Paul Graham etc For Cross-Platform Mobile Dev - kunle
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/17/trigger-raises-1m-from-sv-angel-paul-graham-and-others-to-make-cross-platform-mobile-development-effortless/
======
jefflinwood
Looking at their API docs, why would you use this instead of PhoneGap?

For instance, with PhoneGap, I can easily add native Objective-C or Java
classes to my project to do things you just can't do with a native UIWebView.

I solved some really interesting enterprise-y integration problems on PhoneGap
by writing some Objective-C. Looks like forge makes you modify the
authentication server to return a forge://url which is nice, but could be
tough to get some IT environments to do.
([http://docs.trigger.io/en/v1.2/features/modal.html#external-...](http://docs.trigger.io/en/v1.2/features/modal.html#external-
authentication))

I do see that you can build browser extensions, which is a nice feature.

~~~
jamesbrady
PhoneGap's a good product, and definitely has its place. However, we've heard
from lots of people (some of whom we now value as customers) that for apps
which don't need bespoke native functionality it can be too heavy-weight: this
affects everything from tooling to build process to bloat in the platform
itself.

Some of the main tangible benefits we offer over our competition, and PhoneGap
in particular:

* much faster build process (apps re-generated across 6 platforms in < 1s in the main-line case)

* unlimited support, and help prototyping your app at higher tiers: Nitobi is/was basically a consultancy based on PhoneGap whereas we see ourselves as building and licensing a software platform

* guarantee we'll never be bought by Adobe and get rolled up into Dreamweaver (not a guarantee)

* make no requirements on the IDE or other tools you use - you're good to go with a terminal and a text editor

In general, we try to be light-weight, get out of the way as much as possible,
and offer a great, streamlined experience for users writing apps in the bottom
50% of the complexity spectrum.

Disclaimer: you might have guessed I work for Trigger :)

~~~
boneheadmed
Sounds great. Any chance you guys will be getting involved in HTML5 game
support?

~~~
amirnathoo
Yes, most of our early customers are in development mode, but here's an early
example in the Android Marketplace:

[https://market.android.com/details?id=forge.generated.galact...](https://market.android.com/details?id=forge.generated.galactiansed6dedf43b1711e192f112313d1adcbe)

------
tluyben2
Please fix the mobile debugging process. We have developed a lot (... A LOT)
of cross platform mobile apps on Phonegap (most), Sencha, Appcelerator and the
debugging process, crossplatform, is horrible. I don't think you would be much
help without better debugging (we find Phonegap quite good for everything
anyway), but you might surprise us :)

~~~
lukifer
This is my issue with HTML5 bridges as well. My PhoneGap project ground to a
halt due to intermittent WebKit crashes. I'm trying to chase down JS memory
leaks by hand, but put simply, the UIWebView debugging options suck.

------
_pius
Interesting that Paul was mentioned specifically as an investor rather than
YC. Is Trigger a YC company?

~~~
pg
Yes, Trigger is the new name of Webmynd. I invested my TechFellow award
(<http://techfellows.com>) in them. They have a novel model where they give
you some amount of money to invest in the co of your choice, and you split the
proceeds.

~~~
_pius
Ah, very cool!

------
gordonbowman
Congrats on the launch Trigger team!

~~~
amirnathoo
Thanks Gordon :).

I'm pretty excited to be working in this area and with this team and
investors. It has taken us a year of iterating with our early customers to get
to this point and it's really just the start. There's so much to fix to make
cross-platform app development simpler.

------
andygcook
It's an interesting service, however, I feel like this would create apps that
don't native on the intended operating system and are kind of bland.

iOS's native functions and hardware operate much differently from Android's,
which is completely different from Windows Phone. Android has an hardware
based back button, and the iPhone doesn't, which means you'd have a different
UI for the iPhone and Android version (back button in top left on iPhone, no
back button on Android). The iPhone has front facing camera which can be
incorporated into apps, where as most Android phones don't have a front cam
yet.

I'm sure they'll figure out the issues pretty quickly though.

~~~
jamesbrady
Thanks Andy - yep, we're constantly balancing two desires: the desire to
expose every last shiny detail of the native platform on one hand, and the
desire for consistency across platforms on the other.

The list of amazing, engaging, good-looking apps implemented in HTML5 is long,
and growing. Personally, I think performance was the biggest hurdle in the
race to make HTML5 look "as good as native", and rendering and JS execution
speed is incredible now - and getting even better!

~~~
dreamdu5t
List 5 of these "engaging, good-looking apps implemented in HTML5."

------
borkumriff
Congrats Trigger team! Tools with command-line toolchains add freedom to use
any implements you want for webapp dev. I think that Trigger fits in nicely
between html5-based ventures like Phonegap and more low-level, savvy
approaches like GPL-licensed MoSync - www.mosync.com and Marmelade -
www.madewithmarmelade.com, the latter not entirely open source, but good for
games.

------
dreamdu5t
I don't see anything this adds to what PhoneGap already offers.

------
iusable
Looks like a great service.

Q - I couldn't find any docs on site to get started with an iOS app. All I
could find is Chrome & Android tutorials.

------
prbuckley
Congratulations to a well deserving team :)

------
wavephorm
This sounds like exactly what PhoneGap, a superb, free, open-source project
accomplishes very nicely.

~~~
amirnathoo
PhoneGap's great for many purposes, but some developers find it too
heavyweight.

We've designed our wrapper and tools to appeal to developers who may not have
any mobile dev experience before and who don't need the flexibility to write
native code that runs along-side the generated code. Which is why we call it
'wrapped HTML5' rather than 'hybrid'. This means we can make the whole
development flow faster and simple.

So, definitely looking to solve the same problems, but we're targeting a
different set of developers who value speed and simplicity and may not have
any mobile dev experience before.

~~~
staunch
I can tell you that you've got at least one guy here interested.

Linux-only guy who wants to take some lightweight weekend web projects and
create installable native app versions of them.

PhoneGab doesn't work on Linux and seems like overkill for what I need anyway.

~~~
jamesbrady
Awesome, sounds like a great match: Sign up and give us a try!

Most of us develop on Linux, so our support there is pretty mature.

