
Ask HN: What tools are there for rapid mobile app development? - hues
I have tons of experience in web development.<p>I know of many scaffolding tools, preprocessors, and advanced debugging tools to rapidly prototype web apps however what tools are there for rapidly prototyping mobile apps.<p>Can you provide both native and hybrid tools?<p>Please also include how much coding knowledge that tool requires (no coding required to must be developer).
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brock_obama
Fastest in terms of bootstrapping/dev would probably be using Ionic or Cordova
([https://ionicframework.com/](https://ionicframework.com/)) but in my
experience it is not super performant (as it is hybrid) and allows for little
customization. Learning curve isn't super steep, esp if you already know
Angular/Angular 2.

Coding knowledge: html/css/es6/typescript/angular

If you want good performance & a huge support base, React Native is probably
the way to go. Learning curve is probably a bit higher than Ionic/Cordova (you
will deal with platform specific syntax for components), but its what many top
companies (AirBnB, Instagram, FB) use for their mobile apps. It is really
performant. You may need to write platform specific code and it may take
slightly more time, but I still would prefer this route over the hybrid app
route.

Coding knowledge: need to know html/css/es6 & have experience with frontend
frameworks. Redux/Flux has a bit of a learning curve.

TL;DR: Try doing tutorials for both, and see which one you prefer. IMO it's
probably not as fast to develop for React Native as it is Ionic/Cordova, but
its still the far better option. It's worth the effort to go down the React
Native route.

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hackermailman
Lambda-Native uses Scheme (Guile)
[http://www.lambdanative.org/](http://www.lambdanative.org/)

There's an example program on the front page to judge for yourself how much
knowledge is required which is basically just an understanding of the scheme
r5 spec.
[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/learn/](https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/learn/)

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zn44
i'd recommend react-native, iteration is very fast and you'd be able to reuse
some of your web experience

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LarryMade2
If you keep it simple then just some good responsive CSS, and keeping in in
mind how mobile inputs works vs. desktop.

