Is it possible to run the ruby on rails, development environment on android, like we do on mac/ubuntu/windows. If not then, please post comments to why isn't possible?
You might want to consider Rhodes. Rhodes is a Ruby MVC environment for building mobile apps for both Android and iOS. It's folder structure is not exactly like rails, but similar enough that it should be an easy transition.
Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A): http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
For Ruby specifically: http://code.google.com/p/android-ruby/
The idea of running Rails on Android devices is very appealing to me. However, I'm afraid it may not be easy or even possible at the moment.
Key requirement for developing Rails applications is having a Ruby interpreter on device. As for as I know, the only real candidates for this are:
Having Scripting Layer for Android (SL4A) along with JRuby for Android, or alternatively
Using Ruboto
After somehow getting the Ruby running, you still would need to figure out how to install and use RubyGems, Rails itself as well as all other libraries your web application may depend on (they may or may not work on Android).
As a summary, at this moment I would be rather looking into some alternatives. For instance, installing RoR on some remove machine and connecting to it from Android device with some SSH application.
Related
I have an iPhone application (with an android counterpart), developed in Xcode and written in Objective-C. It is a classical native iOS app, already working and uploaded in the App Store. Similarly, the android version is built with Java and linked with the android SDKs. It's uploaded to the market place.
I was asked to port the app to Windows Phone. Is this possible without modifying the code?
I am not familiar with Windows Phone dev, however it looks like that is a completely
separate ecosystem for developing apps (different programming language, different IDE, different app store etc).
Can I go from Android to Windows Phone or from iOS to Windows Phone?
PhoneGap - or similar platforms - are not options since the code is already written in Objective-C and Java.
Like iOS and Android, Windows Phone is a completely different operating system and currently requires a completely different development platform.
It is not possible to take the existing code and make it function on a Windows Phone.
iOS commonly uses Objective-C for application development . Even if there was a way to compile Objective-C onto a Windows Phone, it would be inherently tied to platform features, and UI controls. While you could write some code in C++ and share it, with an iOS application, you'll still need some in Objective-C.
Android applications use Java normally. Java is not available for the Windows Phone platform. So, the language is out. Further, like iOS, the platform features are not necessarily shared and the UI control and behaviors are different. Android applications can use C++ (if you happened to code using it), but it has limitations, and by using it, again, you'd be tying the code to the Android platform potentially. Some code may be portable.
Windows Phone applications are usually written in C#/C++ and XAML or DirectX. While there is some similarity in languages (Java and C#), you'll encounter far more platform differences that could need significant effort to convert. From the way network requests are made to handling threads will be different (and many many more). Objective-C is also very different from C++.
Unless you had used something like Xamarin and written the underlying business logic using a common platform (C#/.NET), you'll need to consider a port to Windows Phone a fresh start.
It's not possible to just reuse all of the code that's been written. With a careful effort, you could share some common code (if it were written in C++), but as the shared code will not directly work with UI (and other platform features), you'd still need to do the UI on each platform, work around limitations, and potentially customize the user experience for each platform.
Microsoft has provided some guidance on porting, and provided some links with an API equivalency table here.
Yes, you can use Microsoft's Windows bridge for iOS to convert your iOS application code to Windows mobile platform code.
You need to use WinObjC SDK provided by Microsoft for this purpose.
Follow this link for more details.
No, you can't, WP apps are build with c# or .net and in visual studio IDE. There is no automated way to port a previously coded ios or android native app built with objetive-c or java to WP.
In my opinion there is no way to directly port a iphone app to windows phone app. You need to develop windows phone app with its needed environment like Visual Studio , windows phone sdk and with windows os.
You can also use cross platform like phonegap if it may fit to your requirement.
It looks like you have an existing Obj-C codebase for iOS, and a Java codebase for Android. No matter how you cut it, you're looking at [re]writing code to get something on WP8.
I don't know how "UI heavy" your app is; in general the UI code is the most platform specific (unless you're willing to put up with "cross platform" stuff that might not have good UX).
You might consider keeping the non-UI code mostly plain C++ and using Obj-C, etc. only for the parts where you have to talk to the framework. It will be easier to support multiple platforms with C++.
I took this approach with an app I'm working on; it's targeted for iOS but it's about 80% C++ (including Open GL). If I decide to port to Android I just need to deal with the 20%, mostly UI-ish code.
I am a python learner; would like to develop few applications in Android platform. Is there any Python bindings available for developing Android apps ?
Also I would like to know, Using python binding for development will make any performance overhead compared to java ?
You can use ASE
Google Announce Android Scripting Environment
The ASE allows developers to develop directly on the Android powered
device without the need for a separate computer using Android’s
development environment.
Scripts can be run interactively in a terminal, started as a long
running service, or started via Locale. Python, Lua and BeanShell are
currently supported, and we’re planning to add Ruby and JavaScript
support, as well.
It can be downloaded from here:
http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting
You'll probably want to have a look at the Kivy project.
Wikipedia has a bit to say about it, too.
Is there any way of developing a mobile app as a self contained Rails/Ruby app?
The idea is to develop in Rails using the normal tools (browser, thin/WEBrick and command line) and then add the Rails app folder to a specially created Android/iOS app, from where it will be compiled to a native executable. This would be similar to the current PhoneGap creation process I guess. I know about RubyMotion but its iOS only, and its not completely Rails anyway.
Does anything like this exist currently?
What would you need to do this? Obviously you need to run a local webserver of some kind.. Do you need to run an entire stack (Apache, Ruby and Rails) inside the native app or could you take shortcuts (like JRuby for Android for example)?
What is your gut feel on how this would perform?
Any thoughts welcome.
EDIT
Gems are probably going to be a BIG issue as well.
Does anything like this exist currently?
Rhodes is in the ballpark, but it is not Rails and (last I checked) cannot use gems. It does, however, have you build so-called hybrid apps using a Rails-ish controller pattern, with partials and all that.
Obviously you need to run a local webserver of some kind
Not necessarily, and it would be an poor idea to do so for security reasons. Hybrid apps, such as Rhodes, have a Web presentation layer (WebView) displaying the HTML content generated by the back-end, without an HTTP stack.
What is your gut feel on how this would perform?
On many devices, I suspect that your app would crash on startup for having run out of memory. On the rest, I would expect mediocre performance, simply because Rails is not particularly svelte.
The strange thing is that you want to use web application as mobile application. Is there a reason to use Rails instead of just Ruby (then you have Ruboto on Android). My opinion that HTML5(+ local storage) is enough to serve mobile part and use API from somewhere on the web.
I'm a web developer in ASP.NET, C# and looking to start some mobile development. I'm aware Apple uses Objective C and Android uses Java, is there a way to create an app for both platforms or do I need to buy a Mac and some books on objective c and Java?
Thanks
You can use http://phonegap.com/ or http://www.appcelerator.com/platform to write cross-platform apps.
Rumour has it that Delphi XE3 (Due to come out soon) can be compiled onto Apple, Android, Windows 8 etc.etc. so if you can hold out a little longer that should be good!
For now, you are better using a mac (with XCode) to program for IOS or OSX as Apple is very particular and you need certificates for devices, projects, development and distribution etc.etc.etc.
Android i believe you have a bit more play with, but at the moment it is 2 seperate languages. Check out the DEV centres:
https://developer.apple.com
developer.android.com/
There are ways to create apps for both platforms, especially if you know web technologies : PhoneGap and others.
But like specified in the doc, you will most probably need an actual mac if you want to build to iOS
Although there are workarounds
You could use PhoneGap or Appcelerator. Haven't tried them myself, though. But with those tools you could build for both Android and iOS.
Since you are a .Net, C# developer, i recommend you to use Mono for Android, it comes with cost but will save you time and easy to deploy
http://xamarin.com/monoforandroid
The best way to be truly cross-platform is to develop for the web. I would include this in your consideration of development strategies, in addition to PhoneGap and Titanium, as Peter mentioned. You do not have as much access to core OS features, but that is improving all the time (see http://mobilehtml5.org/). Whether or not this is feasible depends on what you are trying to accomplish.
I have to develop an app for the Ipad. It has to be non-browser based. That's a requirement and I can't change it.
I think it likely that the app would be useful on other tablet PC types and have a good chance of a second app which requires IPad and Android at a minimum; Windows and Linux would also be useful.
If it makes any differences these are "desktop" apps for tablet PCs and it is not envisaged that there will be any handphone development.
Is there a “Grand Unifying Theory” of cross-platform desktop app development? Is there a good IDE, preferably FOSS? I'd rather code C++ or Java and am less keen on Ruby or Python (through lack of experience) but would accept if there is no alternative.
I need a GUI builder, something like Borland Delphi or MSVC or the Eclipse Android plugin and I need a way of executing different code on different platforms (#ifdef Android … etc)
Any ideas, or should I just go ahead and code the current project for Ipad only and stick to browser based HTML5 + CSS3 with Jquery/Ajax for cross platform apps (the problem being that some will need to execute native system calls, like en/de-crypting a file and at least one app has to work in “local mode” if there is so internet access, so I guess I would have to bundle a web server (Apache) if I go browser based (in order to serve the web pages), which would not be necessary with a “desktop app”.
Any recommended IDEs, Web sites? Books? Thanks
The "grand unifying theory" is that core business logic should reside in the cloud; that allows your iOS and Android implementations to be just a thin GUI on top of this shared logic. Unfortunately, there isn't really a way to reuse the GUI, and even if you did, it would go against the intuition of users on one or both platforms, since you wouldn't be using the paradigms of those specific platforms.
Google App Engine provides a way for implementing your core business logic in Java on top of Google's cloud computing infrastructure at reasonable costs (development is free, cost is proportionate to usage, and one can put caps on how much one is willing to pay). There is an Eclipse plugin for developing App Engine applications. When developing for Android, you will similarly want to use Eclipse (there is a plugin specifically for Android development), although the Android SDK can be used just from the commandline (which is good for setting up a continuous build and test system).
For iOS, you will want to use the standard Xcode and the iOS SDK. Xcode is an IDE, but it is possible to build Xcode projects directly from the commandline using the xcodebuild command (also good for continuous building). The standard language for iOS applications is Objective-C.
You should take a look at jQuery Mobile. I used it to cross develop between Android and Playbook. I know that it also does iOS.
Maybe for you the downside is that you have to program in JavaScript.