Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

docs: adds mobile programming languages #945

Closed
wants to merge 4 commits into from
Closed

docs: adds mobile programming languages #945

Changes from 1 commit
Commits
Show all changes
4 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
fc55313
chore: remove redundant whitespace from standard
huwd Oct 7, 2024
a480d6d
chore: use content focused apostrophe to avoid compilation issues
huwd Oct 7, 2024
62ad7d4
Add JavaScript / Node.js as a first class backend langauge at GDS
huwd Oct 7, 2024
05a27ae
docs: adds initial section for kotlin/swift in programming languages …
mcgarj Oct 9, 2024
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
18 changes: 18 additions & 0 deletions source/standards/programming-languages.html.md.erb
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -98,6 +98,24 @@ We used Scala in the early days of GDS. GOV.UK Licensing is the only remaining
application written in Scala but we’ve found it hard to support because of a lack
of skills in GDS. Do not use Scala for new projects.

## Mobile Development

For developing mobile apps, we use Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android.
Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

@mcgarj in line with other docs, consider annotating some of the brand names here with links back to the product pages of that stuff.

So Swift, Kotlin, hell even iOS and Android.

Imagine you're reading this as a dev who (ahem... perhaps like me a few months ago) has zero starting point for this. Let's link richly through to the right pages so someone can go find out what we mean by Swift, Android or even iOS.


These languages have been chosen over using frameworks such as Flutter or .NET MAUI so that the apps
feel like a native Android/iOS app without writing extra code to account for the specific OS in Flutter, for example.
Comment on lines +105 to +106
Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think this is a great statement, and one I might like to see expanded.

I wonder if one of the mobile seniors or folks involved with these decisions wouldn't mind chipping in here?

I think there's a candidate here for a separate GDS Way page about "preferences for native first / web first or hybrid".

It'd be good if we could write this paragraph in a way we could link off to that when we have more guidance later.

Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

I think we'd be overreaching here to specify in this that we have an organisational preference for single platform mobile apps over cross platform tooling - as I understand DI and GOV.UK both made the decision to go single platform based on individual project requirements.

I think it'd be better to just leave how someone would approach a cross platform app as undefined here as we've not yet established a pattern/preferred framework in the org - and maybe we never will? And then to amend the above sentence to be: "For developing native mobile apps, we use Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android."

I imagine there could be a sentence or two to explain why Kotlin over an alternative like Java for native Android development and why Swift over Objective-C for native iOS - but it could be a little superfluous given how dominant both languages in the sphere. So as an alternative something that just says "These languages have been chosen as they are the common industry standard and vendor recommended languages to use for their respective platforms"


### Swift

The Swift version is generally tied to the version of Xcode you're using. As long as the Xcode version supports the minimum targeted iOS version
of your team's app, you can use the most recent version if desired.
Comment on lines +110 to +111
Copy link
Member

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

huh the suggestion tool disappeared from github, I must be doing something odd...

Consider putting this on one line


// TODO: Do we need to mention minimum iOS targets for DI / GOV.UK?

### Kotlin

// TODO: Fill in specific Kotlin/Android Studio versions/ OS targets?

## Using other languages

There will be sensible reasons to not follow the above guidance on languages.
Expand Down