Starting a new side project, now I'm trying to decide on a language/platform like...

My main is Python so maybe I could help you ascertain exactly what you want to do... If it's a web development project then you could use both... You can use django as your framework and developed the core stuff with Python and then use JS for interactivity on your pages.... Now if you wanted to something more on the line of gaming you could use pygame to get your feet wet and develop a small game (2d)... That's what I'm currently doing... If you want an example just check out my profile and you'll see the game I'm working on using Python/pygame repetitively. Hope this helps!!!

@dalastTomCruise Thanks! I've got a bit of experience in JS, but am still wet behind the ears with Python. I like it a lot, but I don't know enough about it to understand it's benefits/limitations. That's where my biggest question mark is right now.

Yeah I know what you mean... Python is very powerful but at the same time it sacrifices a lot with its readable presentation (like Java has types that make it more efficient but syntactically not as pleasing)... However, every language has its ups and downs and I think if you develop something with Python, the syntax will be easy enough to get you through all of the OOP processes you need to actually put in use to grasp it's efficiency... You're working with JS, which is good, but it's a prototypical language, not an OOP one, although you can structure it to be OOP... It would take an understanding of how true OOP actually works and why JS differs from it, and better yet you would get a better idea of why we have different paradigms in the first place. I've seen people argue in favor of JS parasitic inheritance, which is its natural structure... And I can tell you he made some great point and even compared it to OOP. JTBC, Python is an excellent language if you truly learn it.

@dalastTomCruise I've done OOP programming with C#, so I understand the concepts/paradigms behind it. I'm leaning towards Python since I've heard it can be awfully powerful, but I have other friends who are talking about Angular/Node. I don't know anything about either of those, as my previous JS work has been mostly procedural in style.

I've recently been there and done that. after months (!) back and forth I landed on ionic 2 for my mobile app

Angular node from what Ives seen will suit your needs just fine... I don't know much about it, but one thing is for sure... JS is super popular (more so than Python) and therefore would more likely have more documentation to help you through the process of creating your app. Django for Python is a framework just like angular, but it's learning curve is known to be steep... But it's an excellent framework nonetheless... If you have experience with c# you could pick up Java easily because from what I've read they're both identical syntax wise.

@oskaremil That's cool. I'll have to check it out. I just launched v1 of a mobile app on Xamarin, as I've got some C# in my background, but I felt awfully limited in a lot of areas. I might check out ionic 2 as an alternative for future projects. Are you having a good experience with it? Have you used other cross-platform development platforms (like Xamarin)? I'm interested in a comparison.

@dalastTomCruise Thanks. I've never really looked into Java. Seems to have a good bit of overhead, which is why I like the idea of Python or JS. I might be wrong on that. I like building fairly data-heavy apps, so I'm not sure if one or the other does data processing more efficiently?

@jimmeh What limitations did you experience with Xanarin?

@MLK79 my biggest issues were not so much with Xamarin, as I could do what I needed to do, but with the requirement to use Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio. There was a period of 2-3 weeks that I couldn't test Android at all, because I never got an Android emulator working on either system. I still have issues getting Android to work via VS. It keeps popping up random notifications looking for files, but I shouldn't have to specify 3rd party files. Should all be contained in the nuget packages.

Anyways, I know a lot of folks are limited in scope with Xamarin, but overall it worked well for my purposes. If you don't have much experience with it, I would be glad to help give you some good starting points/tips. Just some knowledge I wish I had going in.

My main thought with exploring other options is not being tied to VS since I had kind of a disappointing experience.

Java was the core language used for Pokemon go... So I think it can easily handle the amount of data your app is processing and storing. And not to mention it is one of the most used languages due to its jvm making it adaptable everywhere... But the bigger your project gets the more languages you're going to have to use because some just do things better than others... I'm still learning Java so I can elaborate too much on it.

@jimmeh I was just curious of your experience. I've been working on a project with it ever since build. So far, I haven't experienced the issues you've experienced. I use the VS Android Emulator and it's pretty easy to edit the VM settings via the config files.

The only file issues I had was having to install the components along with the nuget packages for some of the support library stuff.

What I love about it is being able to use the MVVM pattern and utilise libraries like reactiveui. If you haven't checked it out, you should, it makes complex bindings simple.

As fr the VS issues, I've been using it since it just came out when I was in university so I kinda just know how it works. I prefer VS as an IDE over most things.

@MLK79 I'd love to chat with you some. Here's a post I had on the Xamarin Forums, I'd love any input you have about the issues I've had:
https://forums.xamarin.com/discussi...

Thanks!

@dalastTomCruise I know Java could definitely handle what I need to do, but I think it comes with more overhead than what I want for what I want to do. I appreciate your feedback/input. I'm thinking I might go with a MEAN stack after talking to a few other folks. Looks like a fun environment to plow into.

@jimmeh Are you using Xamarin.Forms ?

Of course, but just in case the overhead is making you think it's slow. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/.... Awesome! Glad you found something. Hopefully it fits your need perfectly. Good luck!

@oskaremil yeah. It's a PCL project.

@dalastTomCruise thanks!

@jimmeh I feel you bro. Xamarin.Forms is horrible. Just for prototyping.

I use Xamarin at work, but there we have platform specific projects with Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.Ios, Xamarin.WP10 etc... then we have a PCL project with all the shared features.

If you do a framework like MVVMcross correct you can have 80-90% of your code in the shared project and the remaining (GUI and page loading) as platform specific projects. That is IMO the only way to do it with Xamarin.

@jimmeh To summarize:

Xamarin.Forms is a very restricted and abstraced tool mostly userful for prototyping.

Ionic 2 framework runs within a webview container and is powered by Angular-2 and Apache Cordova framework. It is more flexible than Xamarin.Forms, and your skills there can be applied elsewhere too. Ionic is only for webapps, android and iOS though, and at some point in time you will most likely want some plugins with native code.

@oskaremil okay, great. Thanks for the feedback.

@jimmeh A proper MVVM framework with Xamarin.Android/iOS/WP/UWP is the most powerfol tool you have if you are familiar with C#. You do have to learn the platform specifics of drawing a GUI but the advantages more than makes up for that.

I like that approach very much but the main reason I chose Ionic 2 for my personal project was because i wanted variety :)

+ now I can be a hipster coding inside a text editor with a dark theme on my Mac :D

@oskaremil hey, don't make fun of my Dev environment! I love my text editor themes to be as dark as my coffee from Starbucks. 😉

For real though, thanks a lot for the feedback. Immensely helpful.

@jimmeh Did you install Xamarin separately from VS initially?

@MLK79 no, I think I installed the Xamarin/VS suite altogether after I reinstalled my OS.

@jimmeh Okay. I think I remember hearing some people having issues because they were trying to install it before it was free and that led to some of installations.

It's good that you found a solution though. If you ever have missing file issues during debugging, you can adjust the debug settings or set up a symbol server. I'd also recommend Resharper, it does wonders.