Titanium studio vs "native" tools - update [duplicate]

Question

Reading the previous threads, I haven't really understood if Titanium studio is a good choice or not to develop Android and iOS apps, since what has been said here on SO seems pretty outdated and Titanium studio is now in v. 3.x.

I'm trying to build a pretty simple app, which will have simple graphics (mostly table views and similar) and low CPU/memory needs.

I've started coding with Xcode and sort of Eclipse, and managed to get something done, but the downsides of that approach are obvious. Twice the work. Not to mention the fact that I don't know well iOS syntax and it is rather complicated in the beginning.

Then I've come across Titanium. At first sight it seems perfect. Simple javascript, transformed in native UI (only UI, I know) and straightforward coding. And with some workarounds it seems to me that it might be possible to build an app with an "objective language" logic.

But on the other hand, I'm sure there are hundreds of downsides that are not so obvious.

So I was wondering, besides obvious things, what are the pros and cons of using Titanium in the experience of those that have (successfully) developed with it both for Android and iOS?

PS I'm not considering phone gap for many reasons, one being the native UI vs. web environment

Answer 1

Depends on who you are and what you are doing, for your use case Titanium sounds like a huge win, for me there are three big reasons I would start a project in Titanium as opposed to the native route, essentially if you want to:

• Program in JavaScript (as in not program in both Obj-C and JAVA)
• Use cross platform native controls in your UI
• Create something functional really fast

The only reasons I would not choose Titanium (it depends on the app, and this assumes you are comfortable in Obj-C and android JAVA) are if your app does high performance computing type tasks, so if you are doing image processing or things like that. Generally though, even these can be wrapped in modules if you are savvy enough.

Overall, Titanium is a win if you are comfortable with JavaScript and its toolchain, have experience working in an Eclipse style environment, and have limited native mobile experience working in Obj-C and JAVA.