iOS Programmatically, Story boards, or both?

[plexdk]

Hi,

I'm gonna do a more advanced app, where i need to present things as cards, just like google now, with animations.. I'm a senior developer, but the whole iOS platform is new to me, so I would like to know what it recommended.

I'm not sure which approach to take, and of course learn as well.

As far as I can see, different tutors, ios classes and so on are promoting story boards alot.
If I use story boards, will I then be limited with customizing stuff, or has it matured enough by now?

Or should I simply take the programmatic approach, and do UI, constraints, layout and so on, by code only?

Thanks

 

[dantastic]

We jumped on the Storyboard bandwagon and have been struggling for the last 6 months to come off it again.

Storyboards make easy things easier and advanced things very difficult. Any tosser can make a fart app using storyboards but if you are making a half advanced app storyboards tend to get in the way. Not to mention some of the code required is very very ugly.

They don't work well with source control and multiple contributors.
They don't work well with unit tests.
They don't work well with highly dynamic navigation.

On the other hand, building all of the UI only through code is just unnecessary
Sure you can do it and it will be perfect but you can save yourself a lot of time by using nibs (xib). The traditional Interface Browser format.

All of these are just tools. You wouldn't build a house with just a hammer. Use nibs wisely and complement with code.

 

[PhoneyDeveloper]

Use storyboards. You can mix in code to adjust the UI where needed. I can't imagine doing a real app using constraints done all in code. I'd shoot myself. I can't think of a reason to use nibs anymore.

The only problem I run into with storyboards is merge conflicts if multiple developers are working on the same storyboard but this can be partly addressed by using multiple storyboards in the app. The merge conflicts never seemed to be hard to resolve.

 

[1458279]

I'm far from the 'local guru' on Story Board, but... IMO...

When you take a programmatic approach to a problem, not only do you usually have detailed control, but _IF_ your approach is done well, you can end up with great reusable code.

Consider:
If we were talking about user defaults. Apple has provided us with a solution, the solution solves many problems we would have faced had they not provided us with a solution. They invested time creating a universal solution to a problem that helps many that are confronted with that problem.

We can do the same, as we have access to the same tools.

IMO, RAD (Rapid App Development) tools work well for prototyping things. If a person was to create 1 or 2 apps, they can save quite a bit of time.

It's one thing to create a machine to do a job, another thing to just do the job. When creating the machine to do the job, takes more time than doing the job, do the job, otherwise create the machine to do the job.

 

[firewood]

Storyboards hide details. That makes it easy to do easy stuff, and harder to do more complex stuff. And you don't need to use storyboards to use auto-layout. If you want to modify the relationship between views on the fly, xibs may be easier. With some macros, you can even do autolayout in code.