Perry Hoekstra wrote:Define other devices? Android-based devices is a yes. iPhone, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry is a no.
The good news is that the majority of the books content is applicable to programming for other mobile device platforms that ship with WebKit browsers (iOS, WebOS, Blackberry Torch, some Nokia), but this still leaves a lot of devices that code samples in the book just won't work on.
Damon Oehlman wrote:Hey Phelipe,
Thanks for the question. I think it is probably one of the best questions that anyone can ask before buying either this book, or any book on cross-platform (or device) mobile development.
It really comes down to the 80/20 rule (as so many things do). Essentially, 80% (and sometimes more, depending on what you are doing) of the code you write will work on any mobile device that comes with a WebKit browser, but the device OSes do require slightly different treatment for programming for the mobile web. Additionally, one of the things that I like to keep as an option is packaging an application for native distribution, which technologies like PhoneGap make possible.
I think that for now, an Android Web Apps book makes sense, but less so in a few years time when mobile web app programming has matured and starts to become the preferred approach - well, that's my prediction anyway.
The good news is that the majority of the books content is applicable to programming for other mobile device platforms that ship with WebKit browsers (iOS, WebOS, Blackberry Torch, some Nokia), but this still leaves a lot of devices that code samples in the book just won't work on. For example, Windows Phone7 as it ships with a browser roughly equivalent to IE7 (so no HTML5 or CSS3 support). As I said, this will almost certainly change in time, and when it does, then having a book titled "Pro Mobile Web Apps" (or similar) makes sense and will be able to provide content that someone buying the book would probably expect.
I hope this answers your question, but if not, I'll definitely try and provide more info.
Cheers,
Damon.
Tiffany Coleman wrote:
The good news is that the majority of the books content is applicable to programming for other mobile device platforms that ship with WebKit browsers (iOS, WebOS, Blackberry Torch, some Nokia), but this still leaves a lot of devices that code samples in the book just won't work on.
Does that mean that this book will help me be able to write an app that I can use on my droid, as well as, then be able to turn around and use it on my iPad? Most of my app ideas are for things like -- accessing online games or reviewing specific database information for online games. I'd like to be able to do it whether I was using my phone or my tablet.
And -- will the book give me enough of the 80% that I could learn the 80% and then grab the 20% to make my app work cross platform? Does it define the 80/20 items -- for instance, does it say, this portion will work multi-platform and also say, this is Android specific and doesn't function somewhere else? If not, would it then be "trial and error" to find out which parts work and don't work if you want to have it be cross OS?
Thanks.
--tiffany
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs. |