mikeash.com pyblog/friday-qa-2009-12-04-building-standalone-iphone-web-apps.html comments

Mogens Beltoft - 2010-03-11 22:05:29

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:05:29 GMT

I downloaded your files from svn but couldn't make the page load in Firefox until I changed the JS include to use a normal end tag < /script >

I believe the < script src type / > is xhtml, right?

Sorry about the extra spaces in the tags - I added them to make sure that the tags weren't being interpreted.

/Mogens

Andrew Hedges - 2009-12-08 06:53:52

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:53:52 GMT

Technically, yes, it's an open question. I think it's just a matter of time before it happens because there are sure to be efforts on other platforms (e.g., Android) to expose this functionality through the browser. Apple will eventually either lead the effort or find themselves playing catch-up.

Billy Gray - 2009-12-07 14:49:40

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:49:40 GMT

Andrew Hedges wrote:

> Once Safari exposes that functionality, there will be even less need to build apps using Cocoa Touch.

I had thought this was an open question, not a certainty. Has that changed of late?

Andrew Hedges - 2009-12-05 19:43:41

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:43:41 GMT

Hey Mike. I've been doing iPhone web app development for clients for a while. Neven's Pie Guy inspired me to start producing some apps of my own as standalones. My first one is available from http://taptacular.com

It's pretty boring, just a mortgage calculator, but viewing the source will show a few techniques that are improvements on Pie Guy.

E.g., there's no need to use JavaScript to detect things like whether the user is on an iPhone/iPod Touch, nor which orientation the phone is being held in. These can both be done using CSS @media queries. (I do use JavaScript to detect standalone mode so I can show an alert to users to nudge them towards installing the app as a proper icon on their home screen.)

I have a couple of games in development as well that use hardware accelerated animations as well. These should do more to show of what WebKit is capable of.

Anyway, great article! I'm glad to see these techniques gain a higher profile. Back in the day, when Apple declared that web apps were the iPhone SDK, developers groaned, but WebKit is finally becoming a viable platform for a lot of apps. The last pieces of the puzzle are going to be tighter integration with device APIs such as accelerometer, camera, compass, etc. Once Safari exposes that functionality, there will be even less need to build apps using Cocoa Touch.

mikeash - 2009-12-05 03:15:35

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:15:35 GMT

To me, the only reason to ever use JavaScript/HTML to build an app is to bypass the App Store. Something like PhoneGap seems pointless to me, as you then get the worst of both worlds: you get the poor development environment of the web, and you also get Apple's abusive policies.

Adam - 2009-12-05 03:06:37

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:06:37 GMT

Packaging an HTML/JS webkit-based app in to an actual, installable app which can be sold through the app store is also possible using PhoneGap:

http://www.phonegap.com/

A pretty neat piece of technology; their philosophy is to take advantage of the common web languages that most smart phones can interpret through their web browsers in order to make device agnostic, cross compatible apps.