Super Programming Tricks

What Is a Web App?

To me, a web app is basically a website that is specifically optimized for use on a
smartphone. The site content can be anything from a standard small business brochure
site to a mortgage calculator to a daily calorie tracker—the content is irrelevant. The
defining characteristics of a web app are that the user interface (UI) is built with web
standard technologies, it is available at a URL (public, private, or perhaps behind a
login), and it is optimized for the characteristics of a mobile device. A web app is not
installed on the phone, it is not available in the Android Market, and it is not written
with Java.

What Is a Native App?

In contrast, native apps are installed on the Android phone, they have access to the
hardware (speakers, accelerometer, camera, etc.), and they are written with Java. The
defining characteristic of a native app, however, is that it’s available in the Android
Market—a feature that has captured the imagination of a horde of software entrepreneurs
worldwide, me included.

When HTML first came out, a lot of people learned how to create pages by using a very handy feature
that you ’ ll find in most common browsers — the ability to look at the source code that made the page.
If you go to the View menu in your browser, and then look for an option that says View Source or Page
Source, you should be able to see the code that created the page.
If you want to see how the author of a page achieved something on a page, this can be a very handy
technique.