I have developed a basic app in HTML5. After uploading to my website, I was able to run it in Safari on my ipad and now it is a stand alone app that no longer requires and internet connection. It uses local storage to store data on the ipad itself. This is only about 20 data items in this case.
I actually developed this on my PC under windows using an html editor but could have done it in a plain text editor. I tested it using firefox.
I do have a macbook with OS X lion and xcode for ios 5 installed. I have written a few basic apps in xcode from teaching guides, but nothing serious. I can run them on the simulator but without paying the $99 to register as a developer, I can not actually run them on my iPad or iPhone.
I am Delphi developer so coding is not the issue with me but determing which options have the easy learning curves, power and flexibility as well as whether to target ios only or cross platform. I expect it is a compromise in the end.
Having said that my little golf handicap app I developed in HTML5 took me much longer than it would have to do in Delphi. (Actually this was a very cut down version of an existing deplhi app) This was partly because i was learning a new environment and partly because error detection is not as good. You can get a debigger window to identify errors but there are no watch windows, breakpoints etc, so i needed to track this using alerts. It was a bit tedious.
On the left is a screen image from Firefox. on the right the same app running offline and full screen on an ipad.
I actually developed this on my PC under windows using an html editor but could have done it in a plain text editor. I tested it using firefox.
I do have a macbook with OS X lion and xcode for ios 5 installed. I have written a few basic apps in xcode from teaching guides, but nothing serious. I can run them on the simulator but without paying the $99 to register as a developer, I can not actually run them on my iPad or iPhone.
I am Delphi developer so coding is not the issue with me but determing which options have the easy learning curves, power and flexibility as well as whether to target ios only or cross platform. I expect it is a compromise in the end.
Having said that my little golf handicap app I developed in HTML5 took me much longer than it would have to do in Delphi. (Actually this was a very cut down version of an existing deplhi app) This was partly because i was learning a new environment and partly because error detection is not as good. You can get a debigger window to identify errors but there are no watch windows, breakpoints etc, so i needed to track this using alerts. It was a bit tedious.
On the left is a screen image from Firefox. on the right the same app running offline and full screen on an ipad.
