Best iOS/Android App Development Tools

[HopefulMustache]

I recently read MMM's fantastic piece on well paying work which mentioned developing apps. App development has always been one of those things that has bounced around in the back of my head as something I'd learn more about if I had some time to play around with. Inspired by the post, I'm going to find the time. I plan on doing some detailed research of my own, but it's clear there are a lot of sites that offer a free or low-cost development course/tutorial. So I figured, who better than mustachians to ask where the best bang for your buck might be? Anyone used one they liked a lot, or even one they didn't? I'd really appreciate any help or insights.

For a little background on me, I minored computer science in college and am at least semi-familiar with programming languages like Java, though the last time I tried any sort of coding was 6 years ago with a halfhearted attempt to teach myself Flash (I did make some clickable balls that bounced around, so... that's something). It's been a while, but I have a little foundation.

Part of this is just for fun because I'd like the knowledge, but I'd also like to think I may be able to earn income by it, even if it's just subsidizing my groceries. I've read some other threads that say "learning to code" would take years and that novices might be better off outsourcing... I'm not sure exactly where I qualify on the experience scale, but I hope I'm not crazy to think about starting if I'm not sure I want to commit more than a few hours a week to start. I'm not leaving my job for this (at least, not anytime soon).

As a reference point, I remember teaching myself Flash with the help of Lynda, who seems to still be at it and offers mobile tutorials. Any mustachians with recent experience there?

Thanks in advance for any ideas or places to start!

[CowboyAndIndian]

Android programming is in Java

iOS is Objective-C. Takes some getting used to, but is not bad.

I built one iOS app. Took me about 3 months of learning iOS and Objective C before I started programming.
Took me another couple of months to program it.

My background. Hard core programmer, with about 25 years of development experience (Assembler, C, C++, Perl, Java...)
on Unix based systems.  Since Mac is based on Unix, I found it very easy. YMMV.

It may be easier to start in Android if you know Java, but it will be much more difficult to put out a product which will work on all Android platforms.

Costlier to get started with iOS (need a Mac, $100/year developer license).

Hope this helps

[HopefulMustache]

Android programming is in Java

iOS is Objective-C. Takes some getting used to, but is not bad.

I built one iOS app. Took me about 3 months of learning iOS and Objective C before I started programming.
Took me another couple of months to program it.

My background. Hard core programmer, with about 25 years of development experience (Assembler, C, C++, Perl, Java...)
on Unix based systems.  Since Mac is based on Unix, I found it very easy. YMMV.

It may be easier to start in Android if you know Java, but it will be much more difficult to put out a product which will work on all Android platforms.

Costlier to get started with iOS (need a Mac, $100/year developer license).

Hope this helps

Thanks CowboyAndIndian! Sounds like with my experience and expected commitment, I should probably expect far more than 6 months between starting this process and producing an app. Appreciate you sharing your timeline. Were there any books or online/physical courses that you used to learn/refresh Java, geared towards Android, that you would recommend? I lack a Mac so I may as well plan to start there.

[scottish]

Kivy is Python based and promises good cross platform portability across iOS and Android.

The idea is that the performance sensitive graphics are done using OpenGL ES 2.0  (i.e. the on-chip GPU) and the less performance sensitive code is written in Python.

It also runs on Windows, Linux and OS X.

So the appeal is the 1. the cross platform support and 2. the power of Python instead of Objective-C and Java.   The 2048 game is written using Kivy.

I'm experimenting with it.   So far so good.    kivy.org

Bill

[Vilgan]

For developing in Android, best tool is Android Studio (imo). For iOS its XCode. Source: I do this for a living.

It seems like your main question revolves around learning, and the main thing is just doing. Get a book, start coding, then go from there. I like the Big Nerd Guide series. If you want online learning that's cool too, but the main way to learn code is to always be coding :P

[naloj]

Another way to go is to use HTML/javascript and appify it via phonegap.com.  It will shorten the time-to-app from months to weeks.

Not a way to go for games or anything performance/customization dependent but for simple apps that contact a web service it works well enough.

Did this at work with jQuery Mobile and our app is in both the iOS and Android app stores.

[HopefulMustache]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions on tools/books. As Vilgan pointed out, I may have mislabeled the title of this thread a bit, since I was hoping as much for tips on where/how to begin learning coding as much for what tool to do said coding on. But, as Vilgan also said, I can learn by doing - and the info and suggestions here are definitely helping give me a place to get started.

Kivy is currently downloading. And I'll be giving Android Studio and PhoneGap a look. If I remember, I'll come back and update this with my progress down the line.

This will probably already keep me busy for a while, but for myself and other aspiring mustachian developers, I would be happy to hear any more suggestions or feedback that people have.

[scottish]

I'm interested in your experiences with Kivy.   Also if you have problems with it I might be able to help.

Feel free to reach out.

Bill.

[taekvideo]

+1 for cordova/phonegap. Using it for apps at work right now. Really quick development with lots of powerful javascript libraries out there. Plus it runs in browsers or compiles to native for any mobile device.

[jpo]

Depends on your idea, but it seems to me like a very large number of "app ideas" could be better served by a well-designed mobile website.

[Jedi]

I personally use and love Android Studio for Android work. I really like App Code (by the same company as Android Studio), but I admittedly have not used it enough to know if I like it more.

Jet Brains, the maker both of Android Studio and App Code, has a pretty good open source policy. If you are a maintainer/contributor to an open source project, you can apply for a free license.

Android Studio is free for anyone, and I get App Code for free via my open source license.


As native vs mobile app, I would recommend doing native apps. By default, you have access to the phone's functions, it tends to provide a better UX, and once you get over the learning curve of language/framework, I find it to be faster/easier. The last point may depend on the app, and what you already have built. e.g. An app that has no dependency on a backend server might be faster to do native, whereas an app communicating to a server may end up being faster to do as a mobile site. As a general rule, my experience is that users tend to prefer the native apps anyway.


A big -1 to phonegap. An experiment at our company lead us to 8 weeks to build the phonegap version and 6 weeks to build both native versions.


Mobile Backgound: Professional software developer for ~6 years, maintainer of iOS an open source project, have given around 6 talks at various iOS conferences.

[scottydog]

Do any of you iOS developers have tips for the minimum (or recommended) hardware required?  I'm in a similar position as the OP, planning to start experimenting with mobile app development for fun.  I have a mid-2006 iMac and the latest supported OS is Snow Leopard.  We're planning to upgrade to a newer computer in the next 6-12 months anyway, and I'd like to aim for being capable of app development without necessarily getting top-of-the-line.

[HopefulMustache]

I'm interested in your experiences with Kivy.   Also if you have problems with it I might be able to help.

Feel free to reach out.

Bill.

Thanks Bill. It might take a little time for me to dive in (It looks like I will probably need to do some separate studying of Python if I am going to go that way), but hopefully I will have some progress to report before long. I am intrigued by it being cross platform.

[Vilgan]

A big -1 to phonegap. An experiment at our company lead us to 8 weeks to build the phonegap version and 6 weeks to build both native versions.

I'll second this. phonegap is pretty terrible compared to what you can do with native. Learning native has actual value too as you learn the languages and the architecture for each platform whereas with phone gap you just learn phone gap.