Writing a forms based 'web application' targetting blackberry, iphone and android

This question has been asked in various guises. However. this is a slightly different take on things. By web application, I mean an ultra lightweight frontend - ideally an HTML page with form and regular buttons, with as little dependenc开发者_如何学编程e on heavyweight JS libraries like jQuery as possible.

The goal is simple. I want to write a simple forms based application for use accross various mobile devices. I thought going the HTML route would be the simpler route (since browsers get around the whole cross platform issue) but even the browser approach seems problematic because of differing screen sizes on mobiles.

I have two questions:

1. For a simple form based application like I have in mind (possible 3-4 screens in total), I think the browser based approach gives more bang for my buck - am I missing a trick?

2. Are there any resources that someone can point me to for:

   • a useful reference for minimum (i.e. lowest common denominator) window size (I forget the technical term for the visible part of a page)
   • perhaps an example that will show a simple HTML page that will render correctly accross multiple devices?

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The HTML5 mobile boilerplate will probably answer a lot of the questions about how to best get things to work across browsers:

http://html5boilerplate.com/mobile/

They have example markup and template implementations for things like browser/device specific CSS hacks, getting a custom launcher icon across different device styles, and implementing offline digest.

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You really need to answer two questions before you pick a platform. First, what mobile devices and/or device capabilities are your lowest common denominator? There are lots of variable capabilities between most of those platforms -- screen size, input method, platform speed and mobile platform to name a few. Second, what is your connection requirement? Completely different issue building something targeting spotty or no connectivity versus a fully connected app.

Then you can start thinking about what tool(s) might get you there. In general, a very, very simple HTML site will look okish on most platforms you list. I wouldn't roll with HTML5 functionality because you've got serious limitations there. And HTML/web apps are kind of moot if you need things to work with limited connectivity.

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iOS (webkit), Android (webkit) and BB OS6 (webkit-ish), are fairly easy to develop for.

Windows 7 should be, but who knows? They aren't promising HTML5 support until end of year.

BB OS5 browser sucks if you hope to be doing DOM manipulation or fancy JS event listeners. It's really buggy.

Nokia...it's a crap shoot. Granted, they have about one year left before they ditch their OS anyways.

Screen sizes are an issue, as is the fact you can change the orientation. But that can be gotten around with some careful planning.

HTML5/CSS/JS is definitely the way forward for making cross-platform apps as easy as possible...be it in the browser, or as a compiled app.