The AndPlus Software Development Blog

First there were the VCR wars (VHS vs. Betamax—look it up if you’re too young to remember). Then there were various game console wars (Atari vs. Intellivision, Sega vs. Nintendo, Xbox vs. PlayStation), browser wars (Mosaic vs. Netscape, Netscape vs. Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer vs. Firefox vs. Chrome…), and mobile platform wars (iOS vs. Android). You’d think that, as a society, we’d be getting tired of these belligerent metaphors. In case we’re not, here’s another one: The cross-platform mobile development framework wars, pitting React Native vs. Xamarin. It’s a bit esoteric to begin with and doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so it’s unlikely to become meme fodder. Thankfully.

Remember when “surfing the web” was a thing? The very phrase seems as antiquated as the dial-up modems we used for that purpose. Once the novelty of the World Wide Web wore off, we as a society spent less time following random links and started more purpose-driven Internet activities, such as shopping for books, buying airline tickets, and meeting people in “chat rooms.”

At AndPlus, we work hard to find the right software solutions to problems experienced by our clients. “When Phoenix Controls identified that the old control system used for their valve wasn’t very functional, they turned to us for answers,” says Max Grayer, a technical architect at AndPlus. “We created a touchscreen controller that displays critical data such as room occupancy, room offset, temperature and air changes per hour.”

Software developers are a funny bunch. Not necessarily “ha ha” funny—you don’t see many developers on the stand-up comedy circuit—but they have certain peculiarities. Although they are generally amenable to learning new things, such as shopping for books, buying airline tickets, and meeting people in “chat rooms.” Witness, for example, the great struggles some development teams had when switching from procedural to object-oriented programming.

Imagine, if you will, a world in which you can do, in a car, all the things you’re not supposed to do while driving: talking on your phone, texting, watching “Laverne and Shirley” reruns, putting on makeup, playing the trombone, etc. You will be able to do those things because you won’t actually be driving the car; the car will drive itself to your destination.

Just ask anyone who owns an iPhone: You will learn that it is humankind’s greatest invention, better than fire, the wheel, agriculture and espresso combined. And it’s the only item on the planet worthy of camping out for—for days on end—to get the latest version.