Speed of iOS development using Storyboards vs prog

Question

As a beginning iOS developer, which approach allows for quicker more efficient development?

Answer 1

Creating a basic layout using Storyboard Paradigm is faster then do it programmatic. However the best way is to combine all three ways (nibs, storyboards, programmatic) depending on what you have to do.

Because basic layout with little or no customization does not sell.

I use storyboards just to create a skeleton diagram to show it to the clients and to check if the flow of the views feel right.

Storyboards in my opinion seem harder to customize later using code, because is harder to access the inner elements.

Nibs are nice to speed up development by creating dummy views to avoid time calculating everything in code.

Code for doing customization and animations using Quartz.

Answer 2

I would go for the third option: Nib files. In my honest opinion, I think I have more flexibility with them than with Storyboards. I do think as well than in a near future I will be using Storyboard, but not at the moment, for me it's not a mature "approach" yet. Although sometimes I have the need to create some UI components by code, if I would do everything by hand I would be doomed.

Answer 3

There is no right answer to this. For someone who's been developing with Xcode for 2-3 years, the old programmatic way is more efficient, and storyboards feel alien. This is the situation I am in personally. For someone who is just starting out with Xcode or iOS development today, Storyboards will probably make more sense and pose a shorter learning curve. I can get my work done quickly by avoiding storyboards, but that's because I am too set in my old ways. Do whatever "feels right" to you, and adapt as the IDE evolves.

Answer 4

In terms of speed you are probably not going to have a massive time difference. I do suggest however that you start using nibs and move on to storyboards. I guarantee you will come across code that will use nibs and possible (if not probably) manual reference counting. A colleague of mine runs a iOS training course and still teaches nib's and manual reference counting, then moves on to StoryBoards and ARC. It might take a bit longer to learn, but it probably will save you time in the future. I suggest If you are considering doing quite a bit, or serious iOS dev that you do take this approach.