Cocoa Touch (iOS) vs UIkIt

Overview

UIkIt

Stacks791

Followers417

Votes262

GitHub Stars18.5K

Forks2.3K

Cocoa Touch (iOS)

Stacks202

Followers208

Votes12

Cocoa Touch (iOS) vs UIkIt: What are the differences?

Introduction

Cocoa Touch is a framework in iOS that provides a wide range of tools and libraries for building iOS applications. It includes frameworks for developing user interfaces, handling user inputs, and managing application lifecycle. UIKit is one of the key frameworks in Cocoa Touch, specifically focused on building user interfaces.

Programming Language: One major difference between Cocoa Touch and UIKit is the programming language used. Cocoa Touch primarily uses Objective-C, a general-purpose programming language, while UIKit supports both Objective-C and Swift, a modern and more expressive programming language. This allows developers to choose the language they are more comfortable with when building iOS applications.
Compatibility: Another important distinction is the compatibility with different Apple devices. Cocoa Touch is designed to run exclusively on iOS devices, such as iPhones, iPads, and iPods. On the other hand, UIKit, being a subset of Cocoa Touch, is specifically designed for iOS-based user interface development. It provides a set of pre-defined UI controls and components that are optimized for touch-based interactions on iOS devices.
User Interface Design: UIKit provides a more streamlined and modern user interface design compared to Cocoa Touch. It offers a wide range of pre-built UI controls, such as buttons, labels, text fields, and table views, that are commonly used in iOS applications. These controls are designed with the iOS platform's aesthetics and user experience guidelines in mind, making it easier for developers to create visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces.
App Store Requirements: When it comes to publishing applications on the App Store, there are certain requirements that need to be met. Cocoa Touch provides the necessary tools and frameworks to ensure compliance with these requirements. UIKit, being a part of Cocoa Touch, inherits these features and provides additional facilities for building applications that meet the strict guidelines set by Apple for App Store submission.
Third-party Integration: Cocoa Touch and UIKit both provide support for integrating third-party libraries and frameworks into iOS applications. However, UIKit has a larger and more mature ecosystem of third-party libraries available, which makes it easier for developers to extend the functionality of their applications. This allows developers to leverage existing libraries for tasks like network communication, image processing, data persistence, and more, saving valuable development time.
Platform-specific Features: Cocoa Touch, being a comprehensive iOS development framework, provides access to various platform-specific features and APIs. Although both Cocoa Touch and UIKit offer a wide range of functionalities, there are certain iOS-specific features that are accessible only through Cocoa Touch. These features include capabilities like accessing the address book, using CoreLocation for location-based services, incorporating in-app purchase functionality, and utilizing various iOS system services.

In Summary, Cocoa Touch is the broader framework encompassing a wide range of tools and libraries for iOS development, while UIKit is a subset of Cocoa Touch focused specifically on building user interfaces. Some key differences include the programming language used, compatibility with Apple devices, user interface design, App Store requirements, support for third-party integration, and access to platform-specific features.

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Advice on UIkIt, Cocoa Touch (iOS)

Daniel

Frontend Developer at atSistemas

Jun 10, 2020

Needs adviceon

New Relic

Next.js

React

I'm building, from scratch, a webapp. It's going to be a dashboard to check on our apps in New Relic and update the Apdex from the webapp. I have just chosen Next.js as our framework because we use React already, and after going through the tutorial, I just loved the latest changes they have implemented.

But we have to decide on a CSS framework for the UI. I'm partial to Bulma because I love that it's all about CSS (and you can use SCSS from the start), that it's rather lightweight and that it doesn't come with JavaScript clutter. One of the things I hate about Bootstrap is that you depend on jQuery to use the JavaScript part. My boss loves UIkIt, but when I've used it in the past, I didn't like it.

What do you think we should use? Maybe you have another suggestion?

1.07M views1.07M

Comments

Sai Karun

Jan 30, 2020

Needs advice

We are re-modifying the existing portal to the new one. Looking out for a CSS framework where over-rides are possible, the performance of page loading, extendable, etc Please suggest between tailwind, UIkit and bootstrap frameworks explaining in detail on different factors. I request your help on the same.

595k views595k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

UIkIt	Cocoa Touch (iOS)
UIkit gives you a comprehensive collection of HTML, CSS, and JS components which is simple to use, easy to customize and extendable.	The Cocoa Touch layer contains key frameworks for building iOS apps. These frameworks define the appearance of your app. They also provide the basic app infrastructure and support for key technologies such as multitasking, touch-based input, push notifications, and many high-level system services.
LESS - UIkit is developed in LESS to write well-structured, extendable code which is easy to maintain.;Components - A collection of small, responsive components using consistent and conflict-free naming conventions.;Customizer - UIkit's very basic style can be extended with themes and is easy to customize to create your own look.;Responsive - With the mobile-first approach UIkit provides a consistent experience from phones and tablets to desktops.	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars 18.5K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 2.3K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 791	Stacks 202
Followers 417	Followers 208
Votes 262	Votes 12
Pros & Cons
Pros 39 Complete GUI 29 Easy modify 27 Practical 24 Functional 24 Easy to learn	Pros 6 Backed by Apple 4 It's just awesome 2 User Friendly Performance
Integrations
No integrations available	Objective-C Swift

What are some alternatives to UIkIt, Cocoa Touch (iOS)?

Node.js

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

Laravel

It is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as authentication, routing, sessions, and caching.

.NET

.NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.

ASP.NET Core

A free and open-source web framework, and higher performance than ASP.NET, developed by Microsoft and the community. It is a modular framework that runs on both the full .NET Framework, on Windows, and the cross-platform .NET Core.

Symfony

It is written with speed and flexibility in mind. It allows developers to build better and easy to maintain websites with PHP..

Spring

A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot makes it easy to create stand-alone, production-grade Spring based Applications that you can "just run". We take an opinionated view of the Spring platform and third-party libraries so you can get started with minimum fuss. Most Spring Boot applications need very little Spring configuration.

Related Comparisons

Cocoa Touch (iOS) vs UIkIt: What are the differences?

Introduction

Programming Language: One major difference between Cocoa Touch and UIKit is the programming language used. Cocoa Touch primarily uses Objective-C, a general-purpose programming language, while UIKit supports both Objective-C and Swift, a modern and more expressive programming language. This allows developers to choose the language they are more comfortable with when building iOS applications.
Compatibility: Another important distinction is the compatibility with different Apple devices. Cocoa Touch is designed to run exclusively on iOS devices, such as iPhones, iPads, and iPods. On the other hand, UIKit, being a subset of Cocoa Touch, is specifically designed for iOS-based user interface development. It provides a set of pre-defined UI controls and components that are optimized for touch-based interactions on iOS devices.
User Interface Design: UIKit provides a more streamlined and modern user interface design compared to Cocoa Touch. It offers a wide range of pre-built UI controls, such as buttons, labels, text fields, and table views, that are commonly used in iOS applications. These controls are designed with the iOS platform's aesthetics and user experience guidelines in mind, making it easier for developers to create visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces.
App Store Requirements: When it comes to publishing applications on the App Store, there are certain requirements that need to be met. Cocoa Touch provides the necessary tools and frameworks to ensure compliance with these requirements. UIKit, being a part of Cocoa Touch, inherits these features and provides additional facilities for building applications that meet the strict guidelines set by Apple for App Store submission.
Third-party Integration: Cocoa Touch and UIKit both provide support for integrating third-party libraries and frameworks into iOS applications. However, UIKit has a larger and more mature ecosystem of third-party libraries available, which makes it easier for developers to extend the functionality of their applications. This allows developers to leverage existing libraries for tasks like network communication, image processing, data persistence, and more, saving valuable development time.
Platform-specific Features: Cocoa Touch, being a comprehensive iOS development framework, provides access to various platform-specific features and APIs. Although both Cocoa Touch and UIKit offer a wide range of functionalities, there are certain iOS-specific features that are accessible only through Cocoa Touch. These features include capabilities like accessing the address book, using CoreLocation for location-based services, incorporating in-app purchase functionality, and utilizing various iOS system services.

Cocoa Touch (iOS) vs UIkIt

Overview