PureBasic Forums - English

i know next to nothing about mobile phone development, and actually have no interest in it myself, but if you were to get somebody to make an iOS and Android version of your PB app what language or compiler (not necessarily the same for each OS like PB is, but thatd probably be a nice bonus) would you hope to get a coder in? Java? Xamarin? ..... ??? and why?

Keya wrote:...to make an iOS and Android version of your PB app what language or compiler ... would you hope to get a coder in?

IMO, the best approach would be to use the native development languages for each of them; meaning Java for Android, and Objective-C for iOS. While Swift is regarded as a better and easier language for development on Apple platforms, I have no experience with which to comment.

Making an iOS or Android version of a PB app is probably a waste of time.
There are a few million apps in the app stores for iOS and Android. If you code for those mobile platforms, you better make sure your user interface is easy to use.
So start over, rethink everything and code something new that fits a mobile OS.

I had a few apps in the iOS app store a few years ago (not anymore) which I coded using Objective-C. If I had to code something for Android, I would probably choose Java.

It should also be possible to use SpiderBasic sites in a web viewer kind-of application ...

otherwise if you want to use BASIC, xojos BASIC should be the only larger choice APART from Visual Studio.

es_91 wrote:otherwise if you want to use BASIC, xojos BASIC should be the only larger choice APART from Visual Studio.

And B4X? Supports Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ...

I have no experience with http://www.lazarus-ide.org/

Most Economical Solution: LiveCode 8

Everything else: No UI, No sensors, No device keystore, or just buggy with a small and slow dev team.

I used my own libs in android-studio and xcode till I moved to the Intel solution and then LiveCode. Never seen anything better than LiveCode. I need UI so I'm pretty bias.

Danilo wrote:B4X? Supports Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, Android, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ...

It should be noted that the code base is not fully portable across platforms, and the licence fee includes only limited-time upgrades. Also, like with any other cross-platform RAD tool, a considerable runtime is bundled with every binary.

Nevertheless, it's a solid product backed by a dedicated developer, who's been at it since the PocketPC era.

es_91 wrote:otherwise if you want to use BASIC, xojos BASIC should be the only larger choice APART from Visual Studio.

You can use Xojo for iOS but not Android.

tj1010 wrote:Most Economical Solution: LiveCode 8

$699/yr basic license is economical?

Keya wrote:

tj1010 wrote:Most Economical Solution: LiveCode 8

$699/yr is economical?

$700/yr is cheap if you're even making $3,000 or 2,800€ a year.. Know something else with UI and realistic patch cycles?

The Intel, C#, Python, Pascal, and Android Studio and Xcode workflows are nightmares. Especially on deadlines. I know I've had to learn them all during <2-month deadlines for complex commercial products. All my current mobile projects are on LiveCode do to lack of alternatives and from my experience managing projects as a single-person team.

One exception is some security stuff I do through Android Studio CLI.

I just remembered: Godot has a set of UI widgets and can create apps for Android and iOS.

It's something I've been meaning to try for a while.


It's also worth noting Fred and Freak are working on Android and iOS as targets for SpiderBasic.

the.weavster wrote:I just remembered: Godot has a set of UI widgets and can create apps for Android and iOS.

It's something I've been meaning to try for a while.

Haven't seen it. It has a pseudo-oop syntax. It has networking and accelerator, but I don't see bluetooth-services or crypto,

Development and support look slow. This brings up the question -how do I do updates a year from now if the language is abandoned?-

I'll probably try it.

many thanks to everyone for suggestions so far!! very helpful

tj1010 wrote:$700/yr is cheap if you're even making $3,000 or 2,800€ a year.. Know something else with UI and realistic patch cycles?

im not sure about patch cycles but B4X seems to be WYSIWYG GUI. Of all the suggestions so far i'm leaning towards B4X as its pseudo-VB6 nature means ill probably be able to get a handle on the freelance programmers code quicker than any others, so i could learn enough to do minor updates myself then once they write the main app for me. Spiderbasic unfortunately isnt an option because my app isn't Javascript/HTML-based, and B4X compiles to native (or at least java, but says "native") on iOS and Android. But hopefully this will be my first and last app idea that requires mobile apps, lol - desktop for me.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Xamarin?

Use SpiderBasic. You can then convert your HTML5 to a mobile app. There are services that provide this on the net. Or just code your own.