Multi-platform development

[Alex Tweedly]

Thanks Bob. I was not expecting quick replies to my question - I know 
it's a tough, and potentially wide, area to address.

Thanks for the pointers to those apps - I looked closely at QuickInfo 
and more briefly at the other.

My first comment is that I guess I'm not ready to give up on LC yet :-(

In some ways, the WebApp approach is at one end of the spectrum of 
responses to my question: i.e. provide essentially a single UI for all 
platforms. Of course, it can and should be responsive to screen size, 
layout, aspect ratio, etc. - but it basically makes *an* app which has 
its own look/feel, rather than try to appear like a native app on each 
platform.

Also, of course, it provides two large advantages :
  - sidesteps the hurdle of getting into the AppStore (and setting up 
correct SDK, Xcode, yada, yada, yada, ...)
  - gives an immediate solution to the Dropbox issue.

I'm sure that before too long we'll have a usable Dropbox library (i.e. 
with an OAuth component that imho is needed to make it usable for most 
use cases), so I'm happy to deal with some short-term work-around for 
data sharing (which isn't too hard for my single app). (btw - yes, I did 
look at OAuth with a view to whether or not I could write such a 
library, and decided it was beyond my ability/effort level in an area I 
just don't understand).

The app store issue - well, I have only the anecdotal evidence from the 
uselist, which suggests it is frustrating, but that as long as you have 
a reasonable approach to UI, you have some freedom to adopt either a 
very iOS-centric approach, or something "quite different but 
consistent".   (see more of my views on that topic in my reply to 
Richard's post....)

Thanks again,
Alex.

On 12/01/2016 14:34, Bob Warren wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> The lack of response to your question shows, I think, that 
> multi-platform apps in LiveCode, for both desktop and mobile, are 
> really hard to achieve. I would love to be able to do this in LC 
> because I love the language, but the only practical way I have found 
> so far is to write browser apps in JQuery.
>
> If you think it would be of any use at all, visit the main page of 
> www.howsoft.com and click on the "Universal Apps" icon. The extensive 
> Helps to the 2 apps in this series will give you a good idea of how 
> they are written. You will see that data is exchanged among platforms 
> by the use of DROPBOX.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bob Warren
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>
>
> Alex Tweedly wrote:
>
>
> I'm considering developing a multi-platform app; i.e. ont where the same
> app runs on both "desktop" and mobile.
>
> On the 'desktop' platforms it will use 'standard' menus, and that will
> be the main "command" access (along with an optional toolbar, most
> likely, but the toolbar will give access to a limited number of most
> often used commands/features, rather than to "everything).
>
> But, on mobile, there are no "standard menus", and although they are
> appearing on a few apps (as homegrown menus), they aren't the usual
> convention on mobile devices. So, I will have a combination of icons,
> buttons, etc. on the mobile platforms.
>
> I suspect that means I'm in the same boat as many other people have
> already been in, and I'd like to benefit from your experience.
>
> If you have developed an app running on both desktop and mobile:
>
> 1. did you follow this same split on how your main command structure was
> invoked ?
>
> 2. how did you manage this ?
>     a. really one app with per-platform customization
>     b. two (or more) apps with as large a percentage as possible put
> into library stacks (or similar) as possible, with separate menu-based
> vs button-based apps.
>     c. something else that you could readily explain
>
> Many thanks
> Alex.
>
>
>
>
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