Last time I played around with Appcelerator Titanium I didn't get a chance to really put it through its paces. Mostly because I wasn't getting anywhere ... I remember spending hours, even days, just figuring out how to get a Hello World to run in a simulator.
Yesterday was my lucky day! Not only did I get something to run, I actually made something useful. Or rather, I was given a working app and told to add some features and generally make it better a tiny little bit.
Took me way too long - expected when dealing with technology you know nothing about - but at 6am today I had Pickup connecting to the server on the user's own private channel and talking nicely to the Chrome extension.
By the way this isn't my project, I just helped out, but from what I saw last night, you want to sign up for the beta. Promise!
Titanium good
- It's Javascript, if you haven't noticed I love javascript
- The same app works both on android and iOS
- Titanium API's are generally simpler than what I've seen of native iOS
- Properly using the user interface API's gives you a native look&feel
Titanium bad
- The IDE; I don't like being forced to use an IDE and I very much hate being forced to use a crappy IDE.
- Everything looks like it would be pretty much impossible to develop with my usual text editor method
- Code once, run everywhere is good in principle, but it usually ends up lacking the polish of a real native app, especially since android and iOS have slightly different UI guidelines and traditions
Conclusion
All in all, there's a lot of potential in this Titanium stuff despite the shortcomings. I might just start adding a mobile part to my future projects ... there's certainly some that could use it.
Continue reading about Appcelerator Titanium might've made it to my toolbox
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