[Web4lib] apps vs webpages?

[MJ Suhonos]

Thanks, Brendon, for these frameworks — but, wouldn't apps generated through these methods fall under the new clause in the iPhone developer agreement:

"3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited)."

Of course, interpretation of this clause is arbitrary, and ultimately, up to Apple's discretion.  In my mind, that's enough reason not to base any expectations on being approved via this route.

That said, I fully agree that building a generic web-based version first, and then using that as a model for refinement or improvement within a platform-specific app, if/as desired by your users, is the best way to go.

MJ

On 2010-04-13, at 1:34 PM, Kozlowski,Brendon wrote:

> I don't think building product-targeted applications is wrong, I simply believe it should be done after a universal generic version is created via the web. As has been stated, if it must connect to a database and be online anyway - make something more generic that is web-based first. The ability to reuse that code, or at least the pseudocode behind it, gives a great benefit to that first. There are a couple applications that let you compile HTML/CSS/JS code in to code which will support multiple mobile devices (PhoneGap [1], Appcelerator Titanium[2]).  By leveraging these tools after building a generic model you can customize and more easily tailor specific abilities in to other products (such as the iPhone or Android OS) if desired (like barcode scanning and information retrieval)...or start from scratch using Objective C (in the case of the iPhone) and make a standalone app - but there's always a fallback mechanism.
> 
> 1 - http://phonegap.com/
> 2 - http://www.appcelerator.com/
> 
> 
> 
> Brendon Kozlowski
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