Is Titanium bugfree? and is it equally compatible for developing iOS apps as XCode and Objective-c?

Question

Few days back i was pretty much sure that Titanium is a great IDE for developing iOS apps but in last few days i have gone through few articles about Titanium and some of these articles pointed that Titanium is not fully featured for iOS development and it is buggy as well.

SO i came here to my StackOverflow friends to know is it true? does someone really faced any problem or encountered any bug while developing an iOS app using Titanium.

Please Advise about should i use it or should i go for Objective-C?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I believe Titanium is probably more buggy than native Cocoa Touch libraries and is, by definition, not fully featured as native Objective-C development.

The main question before you choose your development way is: will you in future ever consider to port your iOS application to Android? If the answer is 'yeah!' and you don't know Java, but you are more familiar with web technologies like CSS, Javascript and HTML/HTML5 rather than C/C++/Objective-C, I think the natural choice should be Titanium.

On other hand, if you're quick in learning new languages and have some good experience with C/C++, Objective-C is the way - later on you probably can quickly learn Java and jump into Android platform.

Second criteria is: is Titanium capable of delivering UI/UX you'd like to have in your apps? Titanium successful stories can help you answer that question - Titanium: Applications Showcase. Also try many native apps check what they offer. Compare and make decisions.

Important: I've never tried Titanium myself. I just face the similar dilemma as you. I want to extend my mobile app dev skills into Android world and consider Titanium as one of ways to go (I know basic JavaScript/CSS/HTML5, but not Java).

EDIT: I've just checked out your profile and it seems you're coming from Android world. I'd add to my answer: if learning Java was easy for you and you're already familiar with ups&downs of Java development for Android, learning Objective-C should be easy. The main difference is that in iOS you have to manage memory yourself and it can be a little painful.

Some good stuff:
1. Memory Management Programming Guide
2. Learning Objective-C: A Primer
3. The Objective-C Programming Language

Answer 2

I'm using Titanium (and have been playing with it for a few months) and can say with definitive emphasis that it's buggy as hell. :-) If you're looking for a single-platform solution, ie only Android or iOS, and plan on only supporting that single platform, it's a no-brainer to avoid TiStudio.

What Titanium is trying to do is to abstract and simplify the underlying nature of the platform you're on. It doesn't do this fabulously, but for simple apps, I've had lots of success.

That said, because it's attention is split amongst three (with Blackberry support incoming) platforms, it will always lag behind the native dev systems, and always lack in advanced features. That's the trade-off.

All that said, TiStudio is lightyears better than TiDeveloper (Appcelerator bought Aptana and is now in the process of integrating Titanium development with the Aptana IDE), and they're really working hard to make the platform top-notch.

I've landed on it as a platform due to my abject hatred of Java (after two months trying to relearn Java using the native IDE path) and my desire to do cross-platform development. I'm also confident I can route around the Titanium bugs/flaws as I'm basically writing my own app development framework on top of the Titanium SDK, so I can automate things that suck, fix errant behaviors, etc. It's a lot of work.

But that's basically where mobile development is right now. You pick your poison. Stick with a native SDK and be locked into one platform and have to deal with an annoying language (both Java and Objective C are ancient by modern Python/Ruby/whatever standards), or try something like Titanium which offers simplicity and a more flexible language, but is less tightly integrated an more buggy.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

Titanium basically uses JavaScript for developing application in iOS and Android. If you are comfortable working in JavaScript and CSS you can try Titanium.

Its my personal opinion, try learning Objective C, its really great language. If you have knowledge of C or C++, then understanding the concepts of Objective C becomes easier.

Try Objective C, you won't be disappointed.