Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
<p>This is where you are</p>
<div class="app_button" id="welcome_button">Go Back</div>
</div>
<div id="settings" class="view">
<form id="settings_form">
<fieldset>
<legend>Map Type</legend>
<input type="radio" name="map" value="roadmap" checked>
Road Map<br/>
<input type="radio" name="map" value="satellite">
Satellite<br/>
<input type="radio" name="map" value="terrain">
Terrain<br/>
<input type="radio" name="map" value="hybrid">
Hybrid<br/>
</fieldset>
<fieldset>
<legend>Zoom Level</legend>
<input type="radio" name="zoom" value="10">
Super Far<br/>
<input type="radio" name="zoom" value="12">
Far<br/>
<input type="radio" name="zoom" value="15" checked>
Normal<br/>
<input type="radio" name="zoom" value="18">
Close<br/>
<input type="radio" name="zoom" value="20">
Super Close<br/>
</fieldset>
<button id="save_button">Save</button>
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>
As you can see from the preceding kitchen sink example, there is not a whole lot going
on here that is different from how you would normally structure a page. For all intents
and purposes this is an HTML document, and this is where PhoneGap starts to fall short
when compared to its competitors. See, when using a PhoneGap application on your
handset, even though the application is now native and can hook into the operating
system with permissions to which a normal Internet-hosted web application will never
have access, you are still just loading a web page on the device. This is fine in most
cases, but on Android devices we do have to acknowledge that the browser is not
hardware accelerated like the iPhone browser; so, if you have a lot of fancy effects and
animations in your app, it will still be as slow and sluggish as it is when viewing it in a
web browser. Just because you are wrapping your application in such a way that we
can call it “native,” it really isn't native in the true sense of the word. This is where my
favorite mobile platform comes into play: Titanium Mobile!
