what language to use for Android/iOS versions of our PB apps

[Keya]

Spiderbasic isn't an option as my native app isn't a web/HTML app and it isn't suitable for Javascript/HTMLizing

[J. Baker]

Spiderbasic isn't an option as my native app isn't a web/HTML app and it isn't suitable for Javascript/HTMLizing

Written in PureBasic?

[wilbert]

Does anyone have any thoughts on Xamarin?

It uses C# as programming language and the community edition is free.
I would say just give it a try.

[es_91]

Sorry if I'm wrong, but was not there a way to code android apps with VB in Visual Studio? I ain't got it installed just now, or else i would know ^^

[fsw]

I have worked with SwiftlyHybrid/AndyHybrid (GitHub/yenrab) in conjunction with jQuery/jQueryMobile.
It's the best of both worlds.
UI in JS with callbacks in native code (Java/Swift).

[tj1010]

A way to filter candidates:

• Has UI
• Has TLS-HTTP
• Has 2D drawing primitives
• Has Cross-Compile
• At most 30% of your predicted revenue
• Has TCP/UDP primitives
• Has threads
• Has encryption(extra points if it uses hardware keystore)

[Kukulkan]

We use Apache Cordova and the app is developed using JavaScript, HTML and CSS (Cordova apps are mostly a webbrowser app running a JS application inside). There are a lot of plugins and mobile functions available but not all.

What we found positive:
- Fast development cycle
- JS is mostly well known
- UI design with HTML+CSS is easy and productive

The negative things:
- We needed to do our own platform specific plugin's for file association and other things that where not possible and, in my eyes, important and mandatory. So it is "incomplete".
- You really have to take care about the versions and compatibility between all the needed frameworks and libs
- Apps definitely starting and running slower than native apps

Kukulkan

[tj1010]

We use Apache Cordova and the app is developed using JavaScript, HTML and CSS (Cordova apps are mostly a webbrowser app running a JS application inside). There are a lot of plugins and mobile functions available but not all.

What we found positive:
- Fast development cycle
- JS is mostly well known
- UI design with HTML+CSS is easy and productive

The negative things:
- We needed to do our own platform specific plugin's for file association and other things that where not possible and, in my eyes, important and mandatory. So it is "incomplete".
- You really have to take care about the versions and compatibility between all the needed frameworks and libs
- Apps definitely starting and running slower than native apps

Kukulkan

That's about how it is with Titanium and some others I used. If you have plenty of time to do a project the HTML+CSS UI/UX and rolling your own plugins for sensors and such is probably nice.

If you have extremely limited time then coding the app and doing plugins for different platforms is over-kill.. Unless you have a team of course.

[Keya]

Any thoughts on this? https://software.intel.com/en-us/multi-os-engine
Seems like a way - efficient too - to create one Java app and have it run on both Android and iPhone? if i was going to outsource my PB app do you think asking the developer to use this would be good? Ive got no idea if it requires a runtime or other bloat to go with it.
I'm still internally torn as to whether i should lean towards building Java or native apps on mobile devices. When i say I i mean that poor unfortunate coder i outsource to - i'm sticking with desktop dev

[IdeasVacuum]

Take a look at the free trial of Spider Basic 2. Spider Basic is very similar to Pure Basic, so I'm thinking that converting a PB App to SB is viable, but bear in mind that a Desktop PC GUI style is not viable on a mobile phone, so you may need to simplify your GUI.
http://www.spiderbasic.com/

[Keya]

Spiderbasic is Javascript though, not on my radar

[Fred]

Hybrid apps are very common on market place (CSS/JS contained in an very fast container like crosswalk). Depending of your use, it could be more than enough (probably very close to JAVA performance on Android). It also have hardware accelerated gfx like WebGL and access to the mobile API.

[Dude]

How safe are SpiderBasic apps from being stolen? Can a user just copy the source files of your webpage (like with HTTrack, or even with "View source" in any web browser) and get your apps for free? I'd want my apps to be protected against that before buying a SpiderBasic license.

[Fred]

Even JAVA apk can be easily decompiled and snooped around. When optimized, a Spider app is hard to read and follow. You can still apply some JS obfuscator if you want to protect it a bit, but client side apps will never really be protected.

[IdeasVacuum]

Can a user just copy the source files of your web page (like with HTTrack, or even with "View source" in any web browser) and get your apps for free?

The User would have to have your app in their possession in order to do that - and they wouldn't bother, given that they can probably re-distribute your app package in any case.
So, market your app accordingly - "pile it high and sell it cheap" Tesco Supermarket founder Sir Jack Cohen.