May 26, 2014

Adobe AIR and Cross Platform App Development

cross-platform-developmentThe demand of mobile cross platform development is evident: It is economical to create an app once than to create it several times. Hence, hypothetically, your return on investment will be much superior if you use cross platform app development frameworks. But the assumption isn’t really that simple. Each of these platforms has tradeoffs compared to native development. Prior to the process of cross platform applications development it is crucial that you systematically comprehend these processes.

With the purpose of comprehending the procedures for a particular platform you actually need to have broad knowledge functioning with the particular platform. Reading up on the pros and cons for a platform may give you some sense of what its strengths and weaknesses are, but only through practical application, that is in fact creating a non trifling application, do you start to get a real intellect of the lay of the land.

So you might think that all you need do is to find a skilled developer who has worked extensively with the platform that you are researching and pick their brain. Unfortunately, this isn’t enough. For example, you are a very experienced developer in Adobe Air. You’ve been working entirely with Action-Script and Flex for so long, and have about more knowledge working with Adobe AIR for mobile. Despite this, you can assure that there are multiple and imperative types of functionalities which AIR for mobile supposedly offers which you might have zero knowledge in.

One solution might be to find one or more high level managers who have experience managing a variety of projects that used various frameworks. If you have contact to such an individual, believe yourself very providential, and pay attention strongly to their knowledge. But also be aware that even such powerful experts may not agree with one another.
May 12, 2014

HTML5; Is It The Future Of Web Technology?

HTML5 DeveloperHTML5 has been receiving an extraordinary amount of attention, thanks in part to active support and promotion by Google, Apple, and Mozilla, among others. At every web conference, there’s an assortment of HTML5 related sessions, and they attract overflow crowds. Also the demands of HTML5 developers are increasing day by day.

Despite its high profile, however, the HTML5 specification isn’t even complete, much less officially blessed or broadly supported by browsers. It will probably be a decade before you can design sites that require a full range of HTML5 features with confidence that the vast majority of installed browsers will support it.

If you want to understand where the web is heading, and to be a part of its evolution, there’s no doubt that HTML5 is something you want to be on top of. The more of us who are using it in the early days and providing views and opinions, the better HTML5 will be when it matures.

But in terms of delivering practical value for sites you are building today, most of the HTML5 development process just isn’t yet relevant. There are a few exceptions mostly when you need to support multimedia on iOS devices.

This is not to say that there aren’t parts of immediate value; each feature needs to be considered separately. HTML5 is not a monolithic thing, but a diverse collection of features from which you can pick and choose.

In the long run, HTML5 developer will simplify website coding by making more capability available through HTML5 tags. In the near term, however, you still need to keep the old way typically using JavaScript or Flash as well as adding the HTML5 option, so it makes life more complex. When will you be able to build sites that depend on a range of HTML5 capabilities, and know that 95% of browsers support it?