Marmalade SDK - should I use it or not?

SpongeBob · August 2012

I have coded few apps with Marmalade SDK I am aware of benefits and unfixed bugs.

Is there alternative for C++ crossplatform development?

I ask people familiar with Marmalade SDK to answer:-
Use Marmalade because....
or
Do not use Marmalade because ....

On Marmalade forum there are mostly people who use Marmalade or divorce and write last post.

I personally unsatisfied with current state but I do not see alternatives except coding with native SDKs.

HemiMG · August 2012

Marmalade's website claims that they are the only c++ solution, but Cocos2d-x is also cross-platform and C++. And it is free, which is a lot cheaper than Marmalade's price for all platforms. On most platforms, it is pretty darn stable. It's also fairly easy to convert Cocos2d code to Cocos2d-x so you'll have a fair amount of tutorials to help you get started with.

SpongeBob · August 2012

It is different things. One of cocos2d-x supported platforms is Marmalade. You can use cocos in Marmalade.
In Marmalade you have low level access to OpenGL ES.

HemiMG · August 2012

I don't know if you are going to find anything that is quite as much of a platform in itself as Marmalade. Shiva 3D has a Marmalade target as well, so Marmalade is just as much a target for development as it is a tool. There's certainly nothing else on that level right now that I know of.
So it depends on what kind of development you are looking to do. If you want the catch-all development that Marmalade offers, on all the platforms it supports, and with C++ support, I think it is your only choice. Shiva3D offers pure c++ development, although I've never used it myself because I find Lua (err, Stonescript) sufficient for my needs. But Shiva isn't going to offer the 2d support that Marmalade does. At least not easily.

SpongeBob · August 2012

I know there is no alternative on market it was discussed on Marmalade forums.
I wish to hear if people who used Marmalade think it worth to use it OR better to use native SDKs.

HemiMG · August 2012

Sorry, I was confused on what you were asking because you said this:

SpongeBob said:

Is there alternative for C++ crossplatform development?

What platforms are you targeting and what types of apps are you making? It might help us answer better whether native or Marmalade is the better option. While there's no "best" tool for any specific app, that goes double for all apps. Each app is going to have requirements that change the list of tools that are best for the job and the order that they rank on that list.

leancaribe · August 2012

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SpongeBob · August 2012

Seems like there is no Marmalade or ex-Marmalade developers here. I was especially interested to hear what ex-Marmalade developer can say about Marmalade experiences and what technologies they use instead.
As HemiMG said there is no alternative technology and Marmalade offers some benefits but bugs and poor support kill it.

marmalade · August 2012

@SpongeBob

Hopefully we (Marmalade) are getting better at some of the issues you mention. We are decreasing the time between point releases and are addressing a lot more of bugs that are reported by the community, typically we have been fixing around 30 issues per minor release for the last few releases.

Part of the problem was there was no real way for the community to raise bugs other than post in the forum. Unfortunately forum posts get superseded by the next thread or the thread hijacked and the original problem lost. To solve that we have put in place a bug submittal form that comes straight to my team for review. This month we have assigned an engineer to validate every submission made in the last month and those that are confirmed bugs should be fixed in the next point release post 6.1.

We know its not perfect right now but we are working hard at making it a better experience

KarlJay · August 2012

The product looks very interesting, but I did notice that it seemed to go from free to paid. One poster had pretty positive comments on Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7555134/native-android-ios-development-vs-marmalade-sdk

The site says it's about $500/year for an inde package.

At least one concern I'd have is that most of iOS development involves the iOS SDKs and what they offer. Using another lang that is cross-platform has an advantage, but I don't know if you can develop platform specific apps using the same code-base.

The lastest version of Xcode has increased support for C++ and has always supported C, so you always write wrappers for various routines that would translate over to other platforms.

One possible advantage would be if it solves the problem of Android Fragmentation. This is a HUGE problem for Android Devs.

KarlJay · September 2012

Anyone know if you have to pay every year or just during the development of the app?
In other words, they can't pull your app off the appstore because you didn't pay, but can they stop you from making changes to the app. So, can you write an app, then put it into the stores and not pay the annual fees as long as you don't update the app?

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Marmalade SDK - should I use it or not?

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