Apps Android or Apple Swift for first time app

[Bobys]

For my thesis I have to develop a mobile application which will be used as a student attendance monitoring system.

The users will be able to check in by scanning Auto Generated QR codes, by scanning the Access Points (MAC addresses) and check whether the student is located in the arranged by the Uni class and other ways that I havent think of yet.

The management of the register will be done by a web app, where only the stuff will have access. The App should somehow send data to that web app.

The basic concept will be what I have already explained, so you've got the idea.

I have never developed an app before, but I have really good knowledge of programming. I have never worked on Objective-C before. But I worked with various other languages, such as Java, Python, C, C++ and many more. I guess there will be no problem of learning a new one with such a background.

My real question is, which platform will be less complicated to start. I know Apple is a bit weird in the background and sometimes is not so open work on. I'm an Apple user though, I've got a MacBook to use XCode, an iPhone and an iPad, which they will help on testing the App.

On the other hand though, we've got the Android Platform which is widely open to work on and a lot of tutorial out there. I have never work on Android devices, even as phone device. So in case I go with Android I have to buy an Android device (I know they are cheap but still is a plus on the final cost).

What do you suggest, keeping in mind Im a novice App Developer? Will Swift be easy on me? With such a project will Apple's limitations affect me? I have no intention of releasing the App on the market, will just be a project for my thesis.

I know this is an Android Community, the majority here might insist that Android i much better. But, I will do the same in Apple Development Communities and get as much information I need to make a wise decision. I appreciate your effort in advance.

 

[Deleted User]

I've worked on iOS application development, and I can say that Apple's development tools are superb. XCode is a very professional IDE, and Interface Builder is an extremely clever tool for wiring up your UI. I've not used Swift, just Objective-C, but as a programming language I do prefer Java. To start with, the runtime has garbage collection built in, so no memory management worries. Historically, any C based language puts responsibility on the programmer to reclaim memory, and bites you hard if you get it wrong, but I see that Objective-C/Swift offers reference counted objects, which obviously helps the situation a lot.

But I guess it boils down to what you are more familiar, or happier using. I went away from the iOS side of things because Android was gathering widespread popularity, and is a more open system. If you go with Apple you're locked into their closed technology ecosystem, with extortionately high cost of hardware. I'm not saying that's bad, because their stuff is always high quality, both hardware and software. But you do pay for it. Many people think it's worth the cost.

In terms of community support, then Android is fabulous. Whatever you're trying to do, there is a wealth of information and examples out there, so for every conceivable app feature, chances are there's some example code out there waiting for you to cut and paste So often I've stumbled across a nice code snippet that was implementing something I wanted to do. There are masses of people out there doing Android dev, and the tech forums are full of helpful advice. With Apple I found that I had to dig a bit more to get some useful information, and code examples were more difficult to find. Maybe I was looking in the wrong places though, and this was a couple of years ago.