Rhomobile or Appcelerator

Question

I am searching for a platform to develop cross-platform mobile applications. The application, we are developing is somehow complex and we need it to run on Android, iOS and Blackberry.

We want the code to be written once and run on every platform without any memory leak problems. I've read various articles about this, but it was all theoretical and has not gave me a clear idea to select my framework, either RHOmobile or Appcelerator Titanium.

Please suggest exactly one platform to start and to move on with.

Answer 1

Correct me if i'm wrong but i think Appcelerator only supports "native" Android and iPhone.

I tried Appcelerator a long time ago so i'm not saying anything more about that platform because it's probably so much different and better now.

I'm currently evaluating rhomobile as a development to native development and i can tell my initial thoughts.

Pros:

• Great support by motorola and rhomobile team. Really big plus, they're fast and know what they are doing.
• It's easy to learn. I found Ruby very easy to learn and if you want, you can avoid it almost entirely and do just the basics. The framework is also very straightforward and simple and using any library usually just requires calling a function.
• Supports out of the box a lot of devices hardware features (camera, barcode scanners, etc.)
• Rhohub, Rhoconnect, RhoGallery, check them out, they work great and gives a lot of value to the platform.

Cons:

• Rhostudio (still) sucks. It's a tool that lacks all the great features of any modern IDE. Luckily you can develop using any other editor (like Sublime text) and use the command line. I use Rhostudio just for building and some quick editing to avoid the command line.
• Like every framework, when you want to do something it's still not prepared to do, it's a pain. Check the features and libraries already included and make sure it has everything you need. It allows you to write extensions but that's not really what you are looking for.
• Building and deploying (not using rhohub) for windows mobile and blackberry can be a pain if it doesn't work like described in the documentation.
• A lot of outdated documentation. Many things doesn't go as described in the documentation, or you can't find the detail you want on something. That's when the support in launchpad and google groups shines.
• Don't know why but i constantly get that feeling that mobile cross-platform development it's still not there yet but it's getting there...

I'm still learning as i go but these are my initial thoughts of the platform.

Answer 2

Disclaimer: I work for Motorola Solutions, that has bought RhoMobile in July 2011.

At this moment (v2.2) RhoElements target Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Big Windows(desktop), Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry with beta support for Windows Phone 8.

Using RhoMobile's RhoElements product, based on the open source Rhodes framework, you can build the applications interface using HTML pages (by default using jquery mobile) and than add you business logic using a Ruby MVC framework that implements for mobile devices a lot of the power provided by Ruby on Rails. You can download the tool to try it, see some videos and partecipate in the forums on MSI Launchpad.

Is this the right tool for your job? only you can decide...

I can add that RhoElements is only one of the products included in the RhoMobile Suite, if you need a synchronization and integration engine, RhoConnect is perfectly integrated with Rhodes and can simplify the deployment of data to the devices.