Xamarin.Forms vs Telerik NativeScript
-
I'm investigating and exploring what technology to recommend for our development team's mobile application development. I have previous experience using Xamarin.Android (but not Xamarin.Forms), and my manager has previous experience with Telerik Platform (but not NativeScript). As a team we're full stack ASP.NET developers so have experience with C#, HTML, CSS and Javascript. We're looking to build fairly straight-forward apps with limited use of the device's capabilities in the future (e.g. the camera). The apps we have are currently responsive web pages but we want to start using some of the device features hence why we want to write apps. From my own explorations thus far. Xamarin.Forms Pros - Uses C# which we are already familiar with - I have previous experience with Xamarin.Android - It's part of Visual Studio - It has great integration with the .NET ecosystem Cons - You need to write separate code for all device specific functionality - You need to download and install the Windows Phone emulators to develop for the Windows Phone (which has thus far failed on my dev PC as I need to enable virtualisation in my BIOS) - You need a Mac to develop for iOS At the time of writing I have only managed to get a basic Android device running in the VS IDE Telerik NativeScript Pros - Uses XML, Javascript (Node.js) and CSS which we are already familiar with - One codebase for all mobile platforms - Access to the NPM ecosystem of modules Cons - No support for Windows Phone (although Telerik have stated that this will be addressed in a future release) I really like Xamarin.Forms but so far Telerik NativeScript seems easier to use with some great debugging tools and clean and consistent UI. I've been looking into both tools over the last few days and they both have their pros and cons, so I'd appreciate any thoughts from others who may have ideas, suggestions, thoughts etc.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C.A.R. Hoare Home | LinkedIn | Google+ | Twitter
-
I'm investigating and exploring what technology to recommend for our development team's mobile application development. I have previous experience using Xamarin.Android (but not Xamarin.Forms), and my manager has previous experience with Telerik Platform (but not NativeScript). As a team we're full stack ASP.NET developers so have experience with C#, HTML, CSS and Javascript. We're looking to build fairly straight-forward apps with limited use of the device's capabilities in the future (e.g. the camera). The apps we have are currently responsive web pages but we want to start using some of the device features hence why we want to write apps. From my own explorations thus far. Xamarin.Forms Pros - Uses C# which we are already familiar with - I have previous experience with Xamarin.Android - It's part of Visual Studio - It has great integration with the .NET ecosystem Cons - You need to write separate code for all device specific functionality - You need to download and install the Windows Phone emulators to develop for the Windows Phone (which has thus far failed on my dev PC as I need to enable virtualisation in my BIOS) - You need a Mac to develop for iOS At the time of writing I have only managed to get a basic Android device running in the VS IDE Telerik NativeScript Pros - Uses XML, Javascript (Node.js) and CSS which we are already familiar with - One codebase for all mobile platforms - Access to the NPM ecosystem of modules Cons - No support for Windows Phone (although Telerik have stated that this will be addressed in a future release) I really like Xamarin.Forms but so far Telerik NativeScript seems easier to use with some great debugging tools and clean and consistent UI. I've been looking into both tools over the last few days and they both have their pros and cons, so I'd appreciate any thoughts from others who may have ideas, suggestions, thoughts etc.
"There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult." - C.A.R. Hoare Home | LinkedIn | Google+ | Twitter
Thanks for this, it's really useful. I'm currently looking into different types of mobile responsive development and design. Would be interested to know what you think of this articleI found online. I am new to the world of app development, do you agree with the fonts recommended that are recommended in the above article?