
Ask HN: hybrid app framework for an app that runs on iOS and Mac - kartickv
I&#x27;m looking to build an app that will work on both iOS and Mac. Android and Windows support isn&#x27;t needed.<p>What hybrid app frameworks exist for this purpose? Most of the ones I&#x27;ve heard of are moblie + mobile (iOS + Android) or desktop + desktop (Mac + Windows), not mobile + desktop.<p>I prefer to code in Swift, since I need access to a few platform APIs, and since I&#x27;m very comfortable with it, and with iOS APIs as well, more than HTML&#x2F;CSS&#x2F;JS.<p>It&#x27;s a simple utility app, with a few screens, not performance-sensitive. Thanks.
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bigmanwalter
I know you said no HTML, bit IMO it's the only way to do cross platform well.

I'm a big fan of Ionic, especially now that they released their Drag and Drop
UI editor at [https://creator.ionic.io/](https://creator.ionic.io/).

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kartickv
Thanks. Please see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14526419](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14526419)
for the problem with the web.

Maybe I'll just end up writing two separate apps in Swift.

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bigmanwalter
In the case of Ionic it uses Cordova to give access to native APIs. Even
better, it provides a JS wrapper so that there is a common interface for both
systems and you only need to write your code once!

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1123581321
Look at UIKit clones for Mac. There was one called Blueprint a few years ago.
I'm not sure of the state of the art now.

A Mac app starter kit (icon management, menu, upgrading, etc.) With the iOS
app ported in with a UIKit clone should get you what you want with much better
performance than a web/JS-based solutio ln that will compromise your iOS app.

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isubkhankulov
afaik you can use swift for both mac and iOS however they're different
platforms so there won't be 100% overlap. have you considered building a web
app? you can run it in the browser on both desktop and mobile. you can also
use a cordova based framework to wrap it in an app for the app store.

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chris__butters
I agree, phonegap might be the best best for cross platform hybrid apps but
doesn't officially cover desktop, although it shouldn't be too difficult to
port it to use electron instead
[https://electron.atom.io](https://electron.atom.io)

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kartickv
Electron is desktop-only, isn't it? I need to support iOS and Mac. Thanks.

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gspyrou
Check out Xamarin
[https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/mac/getting_started/hel...](https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/mac/getting_started/hello,_mac/)
.

