5 Ways iOS is better and worse than Flash

5 Ways iOS is better and worse than Flash
Arpit Mathur
Philadelphia Flex User Group

Some introductions…
Software Engineer at Comcast Innovation Labs
Flash/Flex developer for 5 years
Experience with very different UI technologies including Java Swing/AWT, SWT, JavaScript/DHTML, etc
Developer on the XfinityTV Application

Setting the stage
Xcode ~ Flex Builder
Interface Builder ~ Flash IDE
Objective C ~ ActionScript
Core Graphics ~ flash.graphics.*
Core Animation ~ TweenLite / fl.transitions.*
XIBs ~ Flash Symbols
UIKit ~ Flex / Fl Component Framework

iOS Application Architecture
Application
(UIApplicationDelegate)
XIBs
View Controllers
(UIViewController)
Models
Views
(UIViews)

Quick Example

The Good

#1: Enforced MVC

UIView

UIViewController

#2: NSNotificationCenter

BEWARE OVERUSE !!!

#3 User Interface Experience Framework

“Make Designing the right way the path of least resistance.”

#4 Animation Blocks and Core Animation

Core Animation
Layer Backed (cache’s the last appearance of the view)
Potentially thousands of layers
Filters, Transitions
OpenGL backed
Don’t clip to bounds by default!
While animating, it’s the cached image that’s moving around. So unlike Flash, you cant interact with it.

#5 Objective C Gravy
Class + Interface Declarations
Enums
Messaging null objects (mixed feelings)
Key Value Observing (a-la AS2 watch)

The Bad

#1: Device Provisioning
http://www.bunnyhero.org/2011/02/21/an-ios-dev-comic/

#2: No guaranteed constructor
Init
InitWithNibName
InitWithFrame
InitWithRect
InitWithCoder

#3: Memory Management

Retain
Copy
Object
Assign

#4: Touch Event Propagation

#5: Tooling
Device testing against multiple OS versions
Interface Builder craziness
Window management
.projfile conflicts
Folders in Xcode
Download size

Links
http://goo.gl/ZBsYC

Thanks
Twitter: @arpit
Blog: http://arpitonline.com/blog/

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5 Ways iOS is better and worse than Flash

by Arpit Mathur on Feb 24, 2011

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