iPad compatibility & NimbleKit

[Alexander Voloshyn]

Dear developers,

First I thought it would be easy to make NimbleKit compatible with
iPad, but no, it's not easy at all. Classes like navigation controller
or tab controller don't work on iPad and many things work partially.
And I'm not telling about NimbleKit implementation being not working,
I'm talking about iPhone native controls - try creating new project
from "Navigation-based Application" template and you'll see that it
won't work (will show app in top right corner occupying very small
space of iPad screen). Maybe it is because iPad SDK is still beta. But
anyway, considering new APIs and UI elements, it won't be possible to
deliver full advantage of iPad in NimbleKit framework keeping it
compatible with iPhone. Considering all this facts we decided to make
compatibility to all controls which are available for iPhone. So you
will still be able to develop full featured applications for iPhone
and not feature full for iPad (if you use toolbars for navigation you
won't see any difference).
But also we understand that iPad is not just a big iPod, it has some
great advantages and new UI elements, also it has big potential and
will grow fast, so we decided to create new framework targeting only
iPad development to get most of it.
NimbleKit and future iPad framework will live as two separate projects
with different web-sites and forums, most likely I won't lead iPad
framework project, but I'll still be in support for both projects ;)
We still did not approximate amount of work needed to create iPad
framework, but it seem to be a lot, that's why new project will have
separate license from NimbleKit, but for the users who purchased
NimbleKit we'll make BIG discount.

[Baptiste Rieg]

Seems to be normal ans I'm sure it will be great work again. So keep going on, we'll be a lot to follow you in this new project !

Baptiste Rieg

-----E-mail d'origine-----
De : Alexander Voloshyn <a.vol...@gmail.com>
A : NimbleKit <nimb...@googlegroups.com>
Envoyé le : Vendredi, 29 Janvier 2010 10:31
Sujet : [NimbleKit] iPad compatibility & NimbleKit

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[Orien Colmer]

That's understandable, but what will happen when a user tries to use
our nimblekit iPhone app on their iPad? Does this mean we'll have to
release two versions of our app?

--O

[Alexander Voloshyn]

If you use NimbleKit you don't need 2 binaries. You can create universal binaries as well.
You have a choice:
1. make only iPhone application and it can run zoomed. All applications created specifically for iPhone run on iPad without any problem, but in 2x zoomed mode.
2. make universal application where you will need to call getDeviceType method of NKApplication and determine which device you running now and layout your application content depending on this.

So basically when you write universal code you will need to use iPhone 3.2 SDK and launch application in iPhone simulator and test it, if everything works then launch iPad simulator and see what elements have to be changed or positioned, then you open your html code and put something like this:

var app = new NKApplication();
dev = app.getDeviceType();
if (dev.indexOf("iPhone") == -1 && dev.indexOf("iPod") == -1)
{
// we have iPad, place control with iPad coordinates
}
else
{
// we have either iPhone or iPod touch, place controls with different coordinates
}

However current beta version of iPad SDK is really raw and buggy, device type is always returns iPhone, some controls don't work or partially work on iPad, I think till the end of February we will have stable SDK. Still plenty of time, the device will be released in the end of March. Till SDK gets better I don't see a normal way to develop universal apps. For example NKToolbar works, but you can't click buttons and when you rotate iPad simulator buttons can be clicked but send no events at all, it's not NimbleKit's fault, toolbar simply does not work. Examples like this are tons. So of course you can plan interface design and content of your future universal applications, but it's a little early to do some real development.

Also as iPad SDK is under NDA I can't release NimbleKit officially supporting iPad SDK :(
I did some changes to NimbleKit so it works with iPad now, but I can't modify Xcode template or similar things.
So if you have any troubles making iPad application or universal application feel free to open post on forum and ask, until iPhone SDK is released I can only help you using forum.
_____
Alexander Voloshyn