[HadItWithDesktops]

Hello All,

I am about to plunge into the world of Mobile App development. I can handle most languages - C#, CPP, Java... - and could work with Visual Studio or Eclipse. Given that I need to target several mobile OSs (with iOS and Android for starters) I am looking at the possiblity of using a cross-platform development framework. I have run into many - ParticleCode, moSync, Marmalade... .

The first app I need to write needs the following

a. A fairly simple UI - a few static screens.
b. The ability to use the phone's GPS to establish its location.
c. The ability to make HTTP POST requests
d. The ability to show a Google map with pinned locations

I would much appreciate any advice on what is good and what is not, the pros and cons... . Is cross-platform mobile development a reality or do the end results appear less than perfect?

[Topher84]

What you are wanting to do is a mobile website not a native phone app.

[Philter]

There are certainly ways to build mobile apps cross platform. All have benefits and downsides. Some compile down to fully native functioning apps, while others use a native wrapper that displays HTML in a web view of some sort.

I put together a diagram of some of the dev stacks available for doing mobile dev, and by the looks of it, your background is probably suited for several of them.

http://http://www.ph...sign.com/?p=107

Good luck!

Sorry, looks like the link in that last post didn't format correctly. Here it is:

www.philterdesign.com/?p=107

[dodgycoder]

There are several great (and free!) cross platform mobile development toolkits around these days. I've just written a blog post discussing the several toolkits available;

Modern Cross Platform Development Toolkits Reviewed : The frameworks reviewed include: Mono, Appcelerator Titanium, Rhodes, PhoneGap, MoSync and Moai.

You might want to also keep an eye on RedGate's recently announced Nomad project which will allow for cross platform mobile development using the Visual Studio IDE.