Tidekit - Native vs. HTML5, they promise no difference

— Hello. No problem with the skepticism. I think if I were reading about us, I might be also since we not communicated as much as we want just yet. Its been a bit difficult with the smaller team. Christian is typically on our twitter channel to help folks. It's sort of a crazy balance for us along with the development work load and the blog is next for us because we know it is important start talking more about the technology and showing folks what it is and how it goes together easily to make apps. We are putting a lot of effort into the structure of apps for this approach to apps come together quickly and feels familiar.

We were actually around before node-webkit with TideSDK and there are several things about TideKit that are much further along. More importantly we cross web, mobile and desktop. We have more apis for more native capabilities on the desktop and our packaging systems are more advanced. We also integrate with node but not in the same way as node webkit. That said you code in CommonJS to get the most from TideKit.

We are using latest ports of webkit as well as blink. So this will allow folks to distribute to the Apple app store if building with the native webkit. If that is not so important to you, you can build for highest HTML5 compliance with builds on current blink/chromium. We are current to date on all our browser ports and move quickly to keep our underlying browser ports up to date.

Can you point me to this other discussion. We are behind on our communication and we've been quite busy. I am not aware of all conversations. I am really into code pretty much each day. I have no issue speaking about anything we are doing.

— The way our system works there is that when folks make a reservation, it displays their first name, country and the status of their reservation. We have folks that know and have used TideSDK from all over the world that know who we are as a team. TideSDK was featured in blogs and articles in countries like Germany, France, China, and many more.

They signup and their name is displayed, we don't change these things. Our system just makes a request for last 30 reservations in our database, displays the first 6 and our animation runs the fetched data in a cycle. That is all there is to this. Thus far we have a good cross section of folks from all over. If you want to test the functionality yourself, sign up and you will see your name in the rotation.

On our reservations, it may not be as obvious as we want, but important to distinguish that folks with reservations get a full 30 days without cost whether they sign up for as an early bird or pioneer. Trials will be always be free for TideKit. but they will not be so long.

fariwinds , thank you for the answer, but im sry, i couldn't find a clear answer what you say about this "Chan" guy, and why you have 4 different Windows/Mac OSX versions listed. And if you are looking into making it work together with C2.

I appreciate that you take time to look at this thread as it is a mostly negative one, and try to explain everything.

Edit: Thanks for the explanation to the reservation cycle

SgtConti Hmm. If you can point me to the conversation about "Chan" I am happy to comment. What do you mean about the multiple OS versions? We have compatibility with older versions of the OS back as far as XP at present on Windows and on current Windows 8, we now support Mavericks on OSX and we are not working with Ubuntu 14. Keep in mind this means you can still distribute and have your app run on older OS versions. Hope that helps.

SgtConti On integrating C2, we have not had any discussion with the folks behind it to date. TideKit is really a core that can dynamically build up a runtime to execute the code on an operating system. When a developer wants particular functionality, you configure it simply in a .json file similar to a node project.

You tell our build system what platforms to build for and it will compile the code and generate the app complete with an installer for the operating system.

You will see integrations with a 2D and 3D libs for game development in future and perhaps not that far away. Besides native functionality, you have any functionality available in node modules and components. There are already fairly solid libs in pure JavaScript as well as native code for game development. The number of modules of CommonJS functionality folks have access to is now over 70,000 modules today.

We have discussions with an number of folks that create apps of almost every kind, and have a number of existing relationships as a result of TideSDK. Our first goal is just to get our platform out there and then expand on its possibilities and potential.

fariwinds , the conversation is in the beginning of this topic, as well as the multiple os conversation.

Fimbul To explain, the happy faces are supposed to be those of your customers. This is just symbolic, and we use a stock image there to show smiling happy people.

We are working to achieve ubiquity across devices so that with a single effort in your project code, a customer gets a great user experience moving from device to device. That is all we mean. Folks move between their devices throughout the day, their desktops, phone, tablets, tv and they are never almost on the same OS.

We wanted our platform page to read like a story with a beginning and an end. An introduction from design and concept through to the deployment story. In the end we want folks building apps and reaching as many folks with their apps as possible. This is important for your own monetization and so that you have happy customers as opposed to those asking you when you are going to be ready with your app on the device they use.

On the multiple OSs. Its is not always easy with what we work with to maintain compatibility with the older operating systems. Many folks are not on the latest and it is important for us to show that when you build, you can still deploy and run on these.

fariwinds , that is i good explanation (at least im satisfied with that ), with that, i now think we at least should wait to see it in action.

SgtConti, I will seek out the Chan thread and reply. We also have a number of folks in the TideSDK community waiting for TideKit for some time. This is also really also their upgrade path and many folks there have been more than patient as we have been moving forward. You will see our blog up next week as we look to do a better job to communicate with everyone. We also have a tag for TideKit on StackOverflow for questions. If folks need any immediate answers, twitter is something we respond to fairly quickly.

I thought it was pretty clear that those stock photos were supposed to be samples of OUR customers should we use TideKit. I said as much in the first couple comments. I was also shocked when people seemed to willfully misread and interpret it as being "fake testimonials". Sometimes people just want to be skeptics and poo-pooers about everything. Let this be a lesson to all of us, then.

And despite TideSDK being a relatively easy to research thing, people here were still determined to call this a fraud and a scam. To be fair, it still could be, but man, it seems to me that this guy, who gave us his name and has an active Twitter account for his business, and clearly has a reputation, has come here and professionally explained things very well for us. It seems that Mr. Pratt is invested in this project at the very least. I'm not saying I'm buying TideKit, but I would be a bit more cautious before I rush to call it fraudulent given that it is easily researched that TideSDK is a thing: http://www.tidesdk.org/.

Here you can also see David Pratt's name mentioned as their "fearless leader": http://www.tidesdk.org/blog/2012/09/29/ ... ct-update/

Going on to TideKit's website, you can see that David Pratt (as fairwinds, which was his alias on TideSDK and twitter) is indeed the project leader of both TideKit and TideSDK.

I for one am curious to see if TideKit will have any relevance to C2. That's what we should really be focusing on from here on out. It's clear that TideKit is a thing, although we don't know exactly how powerful or applicable it will be to us. At the very least, I think we can put some of our skepticism aside.

Could Ashley weigh on the viability of TideKit and C2?

teacherpeter I appreciate the kind words. The immediate possibility I see for C2 is for TideKit to serve to wrap and package your apps. Folks were doing this with our TideSDK for desktop. Unfortunately the webkit there was aging and we decided to put all our effort for upgrades and a broader multi-platform approach with TideKit. Don't you think it would be better to use one tool than multiple tools for mobile, web, and desktop.

We are up to date with all our webkit ports and now have builds for chromium/blink. Because TideKit can build against the native webkit on mac, reaching the AppStore with appropriate entitlements is possible for desktop. The other possible integration is to use our APIs together with C2 APIs to bring native capabilities into your games that go beyond HTML5 capabilities.

We'd be happy to make believers of this community. I've not yet met Ashley, but together, perhaps we can give away a few reservations to some folks that would be prepared to report back or blog about their experience with TideKit once they've had a chance to experience it. It would also give us a chance to open up more communication with C2 users to ensure we have a product that will fill your needs. That's the offer I would like to make.

On a lighter note, I messed up my forum name, typing it too quickly I guess when I set it up. My handle is fairwinds. Not able to correct it in the bb. Not sure if there is an admin that could correct it or not.

fariwinds , you could ask Tom , just send him a pm or post your problem in the website issues category.

SgtConti, Thanks I will do that. The other possibility I see for C2 and TideKit is for Scirra to transform its software expand its reach on more devices. Windows, Mac and Linux and on tablets at least. Currently it is Windows dependent but I would be willing to bet this would open more possibilities for its creators for alternative software distribution and to grow a wider audience for game development.

This is where TideKit could fit beyond becoming an alternative wrapper for packaging and distribution. I see that one of its core targets are students. Tablets in schools are becoming more accessible than desktop machines. We worked with a company in the past who's primary product was stop motion animation for students in schools where their existing product was very successful on tablet.