Facebook iOS App Ditching HTML5 For ObjectiveC 240
Wrath0fb0b writes "The New York Times reports that Facebook is overhauling their iOS App to ditch their HTML5 based UI for a native ObjectiveC one. This is an about face from their position a few months ago in which FB said HTML5 would allow them to write once run anywhere. While WORA certainly has a lot of appeal for both programmers (due to desire not to duplicate effort) and management alike (due to desire not to pay programmers to duplicate effort), the large number of negative reviews that FB for iOS has illustrate that this approach is not without drawbacks. No matter how the new app is received, this is more fuel on the native vs. web-app fire."
First! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:First! (Score:1, Informative)
They did. Then they changed it to html5. Now they are correcting their mistake.
Re:C'mon (Score:4, Informative)
This is about a browser, not a proprietary OS, and the fact that they have to communicate with back-end servers for several million users has nothing to do with HTML5 vs native. Facebook is having trouble, and it's most likely because the programmers assigned to the task weren't good enough.
There are HTML5 apps that look really good, for example, Fidelity has a nice app that looks sharp and is performant.
Now, personally, I'd rather write in native code than in HTML5, but that is a personal preference, not because HTML5 can't handle the task on iPhone.
Android version (Score:5, Informative)
Does the Android version use HTML5 as well? Because it is beyond horrible. I can't figure out why the app would actually be SLOWER and harder to deal with than viewing their site on a browser, but somehow they have managed it.
Android Native Development Kit (Score:4, Informative)
Ask any Mobile Developer, simultaneously writing for iOS and Android.
The need for the Android NDK (Native Development Kit) answered that question. Java-like approaches are fine for certain classes of apps but for many classes native is better.
Re:Ask any grey beard. (Score:4, Informative)
The latest version of Objective C has automated reference counting, so garbage collection is no longer an issue.