Build mobile web applications with Sencha Touch
An HTML5 mobile
JavaScript framework for WebKit browsers
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/wa-senchatouch/index.html?ca=drs-#resources
Overview
In the software development world, two important trends are increasingly
important: mobile application development and standards-based HTML5 web
development. The learning curve for either type of development can be steep.
Developing a native mobile application often requires knowledge of specific
platforms and skills, such as Objective-C for iPhone and Java™ for Android (and
these are only two platforms). HTML5 development has gained traction lately
because it is standards-based. While vendors are working rapidly to incorporate
and comply with these early specifications, HTML5 is still rather immature.
The recent release of Sencha Touch 1.0 fuses the cutting-edge worlds of
mobile application development with HTML5 web development to form a simple,
accessible framework for building mobile web applications. In this article,
learn everything you'll need to know to start working with the Sencha Touch
framework.
Sencha Touch
Learning to build mobile applications—especially from the perspective of a
web developer—can be troublesome. A variety of platforms to choose from and
technologies to learn are available. HTML5 support, though gaining momentum
quickly, is still not quite ready to be used for complex web applications,
particularly line-of-business applications.
Sencha Touch combines the rich platforms of HTML5 and mobile web application
development into a happy medium. The framework is developer-friendly and similar
to using the Ext JS JavaScript framework. If you have moderate to advanced
JavaScript experience, then Sencha Touch is approachable. If you already have
skills as a JavaScript and CSS developer, Sencha Touch can immediately turn you
into a mobile application developer, too.
Sencha is a company with a core commercial product offering, but it also
supports open source software. Sencha Touch 1.0 is free for both personal and
commercial use.
Frequently used abbreviations
Ajax: Asynchronous
JavaScript + XML
API: application programming
interface
CSS: Cascading Style
Sheets
HTML: Hypertext Markup
Language
JSON: JavaScript Object
Notation
SDK: software development
kit
UI: user interface