Comments on: iPhone Development: Aptana and Morfik

By: Fuad Ta'eed

Fuad Ta'eed — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:59:47 +0000

Aaron, the chess computation is all client side. Disconnect from the Internet and see it continues to work fine, as long as the browser is kept open.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:48:16 +0000

I’m getting the error:

Aptana support for Apple iPhone 01020070681323 requires plug-in com.aptana.ide.core.ui 0.28.15600 or later version

I de-installed the old Aptana version completely and downloaded the newest version and installed it. Upon clicking within Aptana to get the download, a yellow box with the aformentioned error pops up.

By: Sven

Sven — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:46:36 +0000

Is the chess computation done on the client side or server side?

By: Aaron Pedersen

Aaron Pedersen — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:44:49 +0000

The idea behind the Aptana plug-in is great, however on Windows; the browser engine for Eclipse/Aptana is IE. Since the iPhone comes with only Safari, you cant really test your layout, or functionality correctly. What’s nice about building an app solely for the iPhone is that you can leverage webkits’s support for most of the CSS 3 spec and also Canvas. Since the iPhone is on the edge network (sloooow), the slimmer you can make your app, the better and by using CSS 3 properties such as rounded corners, this is possible. Does anyone know of a way to plug the new Window’s Safari into Eclipse or Aptana? If this integration is possible, the Aptana plug-in will be my IDE of choice for iPhone development. Or we might all switch to a Mac and Eclipse.

By: Matthew Nuzum

Matthew Nuzum — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:56:58 +0000

I’ve found that pages that use a lot of client side javascript processing for effects and animation cause my laptop’s CPU to run hotter and for the fan to run. Presumably this is because the processor has to run closer to full speed. The net result is significantly reduced battery life.

iPhones, like laptops, presumably will depend on a lot of power saving features to get good battery life. It will be interesting to see how long the iPhones can go before being charged while using this wave of applications.

By: justin

justin — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:10:18 +0000

@PM Maliki
too bad people outside the US can’t get an iPhone

By: Andreas K

Andreas K — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 05:35:54 +0000

Don’t ever use Aptana for editing files via FTP. In some cases it deletes your files: http://www.aptana.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7070#7070

By: Andreas K

Andreas K — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 05:35:46 +0000

Don’t ever use Apatana for editing files via FTP. In some cases it deletes your files: http://www.aptana.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7070#7070

By: keptani

keptani — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:41:59 +0000

And the iChess also doesn’t allow en passant!

By: arnikov

arnikov — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:24:41 +0000

iChess is kinda cool but,

when you promote a pawn to queen it doesn’t show the queen!

Nice little game tho

By: PM Maliki

PM Maliki — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:32:35 +0000

Freaking cool, that’s what this is. Enter the new era of portable everything.

By: Fuad Ta'eed

Fuad Ta'eed — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:24:41 +0000

We have done some basic testing on a number of browsers on different Macs and PCs.
A quick summary for the time (in seconds) it takes the browser to respond to D2D4 on level 10 which involves a 5-ply search (which is far below the 10 ply which is typical for most chess engines written for the desktop, ie non-browser, these days)

Dell laptop
Opera â€“ 20
FF2 â€“ 25
IE6 – 40
IE7 â€“ 40
Safari â€“ 35
iMac
Safar 150
FF 90
Camino 90
MacBook
Safar â€“ 20
FF â€“ 15

On an iPhone â€“ watch this space :-)