The Basics of Cross platform application development

Posted by sujithakumari01 on May 16th, 2014

Versatility has become the keyword in any technological development today. Whether it’s a television or a mobile phone, we are always looking for what it can do “extra”. With the development of cloud computing and internet connectivity on the go, users are now looking for options that will allow them to seamlessly move from one gadget to another without worrying about loss of data or efficiency. All this led to the development of cross platform app development. Users now want apps that will offer excellent performance on all kinds of platforms without significant loss of efficiency. Also known as multi-platform apps, these applications are designed to work on a minimum of 2 different platforms.

It requires a lot of skill and effort to develop multi-platform applications. In order to work on different computer architectures, the user interface of these apps should be individually designed even if their backbone of coding remains the same. Cross platform app development doesn’t mean just writing a program in one language and running it across several platforms. It requires an in-depth knowledge of various software and hardware platforms and a good grasp of a number of computing languages. 

There are a number of design strategies that application development companies use to create multi-platform apps. An iPhone application can be built on a single codebase or multiple codebases depending on its end use. Responsive web design is used to improve user experience. This approach allows resizing of the interface based on the platform it is being viewed on, such as mobile phone, tablet or desk top. Most web applications can be teamed under cross-platform applications as they are designed to work on different browsers that are based on different operating systems.

Some app development companies design one application and then make relevant changes to allow it to adapt to different platforms. While this may sound easy work, the efficiency of the functioning could be less. On the other hand, some developers create unique versions of the app for functioning on various platforms. It is a very time consuming task, but offers effective results. Another easy technique is to make use of pre-existing software and make the relevant changes that allow the app to work on a variety of platforms. An application development company creating an iPhone multi-platform application may also combine different types of cross-platform approaches to design the program.

Some of the commonly used tools for designing multi-platform apps are GeneXus, Cairo, Eclipse, FLTK, wxWidgets, WebDev, Smartface, Xojo and Simple DirectMedia Layer.