What cross platform development to use

[MarcoJEls]

Hi there.

 

I wok for a small software company, working mostly in the aviation field. We are trying to start developing mobile apps for some of our clients. Currently we use .Net, Java, C#, Visual Basic, and Python for our programs, and HTML5, CSS for our web based applications. So the question is what is a good cross platform Framework to use for development on Android and iOs devices? Using native only frameworks are not an option, as we cannot spare the extra time, or recourses, to develop the two different apps.

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SupaKomputa]

Well you can start with UNITY or Unreal engine for 3D or Faux 2D games.

HTML 5 - 2D game engine : Construct, Gdevelop, Buildbox.

[Eigenvektor]

On 2/5/2021 at 8:48 AM, SupaKomputa said:

Well you can start with UNITY or Unreal engine for 3D or Faux 2D games.

HTML 5 - 2D game engine : Construct, Gdevelop, Buildbox.

I don't think OP is interested in game development…

 

One possibility would be Flutter, which is a cross-platform dev-kit developed by Google and is based on the Dart language. Though it is fairly new and has some quirks (imho).

 

Their are a fair few, each with their own pros and cons:

 

https://hackernoon.com/9-popular-cross-platform-tools-for-app-development-in-2019-53765004761b

[ihastehpie]

Right now the "hot" framework that is gaining lots of traction is Flutter, apparently its the closest you can get to native performance from what I have heard. Looking at your tech stack, Xamarin might be a good choice too since it uses .NET and C# to build cross platform apps. 

I would also do some googling on example apps made by the popular frameworks as well like ionic, react native, nativescript just so you can get a feel for what is possible and if it aligns with what your company is trying to do. 

[MarcoJEls]

Thanks.

 

Ja, not interested in game development unfortunately. I have heard of Flutter, but is it really the best option? Obviously if you look for it on Google then they will tell you it's the best.

[SupaKomputa]

4 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I don't think OP is interested in game development…

 

One possibility would be Flutter, which is a cross-platform dev-kit developed by Google and is based on the Dart language. Though it is fairly new and has some quirks (imho).

 

Their are a fair few, each with their own pros and cons:

https://www.netsolutions.com/insights/cross-platform-app-frameworks-in-2019/

https://hackernoon.com/9-popular-cross-platform-tools-for-app-development-in-2019-53765004761b

Ah yes, my bad, i've seen too many "GAMING" today.

[MarcoJEls]

5 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Ah yes, my bad, i've seen too many "GAMING" today.

No worries bro.

[Eigenvektor]

5 minutes ago, MarcoJEls said:

Ja, not interested in game development unfortunately. I have heard of Flutter, but is it really the best option? Obviously if you look for it on Google then they will tell you it's the best.

I'm not sure, really. Some of our developers swear by it. Personally, I've only had some introduction "courses" because the native app I currently maintain is also planned to be migrated to Flutter (+some native plugins for Android/iOS). The one thing that put me off is that it seems to go back in time in some aspects, because it mixes UI layout with code.

[MarcoJEls]

22 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I'm not sure, really. Some of our developers swear by it. Personally, I've only had some introduction "courses" because the native app I currently maintain is also planned to be migrated to Flutter (+some native plugins for Android/iOS). The one thing that put me off is that it seems to go back in time in some aspects, because it mixes UI layout with code.

Ok thanks man. I'll have a look around, see what the boss thinks. 

[Franck]

If we would be exactly 10 months in the future i would say MAUI. A single code and it works everywhere, Linux, Max, Windows, Android.

Otherwise just develop a website, asp.net or php. If you want an app it's just a matter of compiling a app with a web browser as the GUI that point to your website.

So no special code required for any platforms.

[Dat Guy]

On 2/5/2021 at 9:37 AM, MarcoJEls said:

So the question is what is a good cross platform Framework to use for development on Android and iOs devices?

I warmly recommend Delphi: The power of Object Pascal with a long history of mature products and cross-platform RAD development - finally including Android and iOS/macOS. Also, you’ll get professional support outside Stack Overflow.

[igormp]

On 2/5/2021 at 5:37 AM, MarcoJEls said:

Hi there.

 

I wok for a small software company, working mostly in the aviation field. We are trying to start developing mobile apps for some of our clients. Currently we use .Net, Java, C#, Visual Basic, and Python for our programs, and HTML5, CSS for our web based applications. So the question is what is a good cross platform Framework to use for development on Android and iOs devices? Using native only frameworks are not an option, as we cannot spare the extra time, or recourses, to develop the two different apps.

 

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

I've been using Flutter for the past year for an app that does some computer vision stuff, along with BLE readings from some sensors of ours (we tried doing it as an webapp with vue at first, but getting ble to work was a pain). It's okaish, has some quirks and bugs, specially due to older 3rd party libs that just won't work, but it's way better than doing native IMO.

 

Another option that I see many people talking about is React Native, but I never used it so I can't vouch for it.

[FlappyBoobs]

I've gone down the in house route on my team. I used xamarin at the time because flutter wasn't around back then. It did the job, however with what people charge to make the apps for you, it's better (cheaper) to just develop a good API and give them access to it to make and manage the apps.

 

You'll spend alot of resources making the apps and you will need to maintain them from time to time as both android and ios are always being updated, and device sizes and features change all the time.

[colonel_mortis]

Locked because this topic has been attracting spam, and is fairly old.