App development

The talk described the process of converting an idea into an app, with the  aim of demonstrating that this can be relatively straightforward. Some of the technological approaches, such as hybrid applications based on HTML5, were reviewed and it was also noted that this is now old technology, Accordingly, some of the advances in recent years were overviewed. Other approaches, including ANGULAR or Sass, were also overviewed. The problem of platform continuity was also raised. The speaker then proposed and demonstrated an engineering approach which brings together a number of technologies in what he assured us is a straightforward manner. The audience were then taken through the practical steps of installing an app on their laptops.

A problem with this sort of talk is that it is of necessity about technical detail / programming skills. The impression given was that the speaker certainly had the technical competence for app development to be relatively simple using the approach described. The talk will have been useful for anyone already seeking competence with app development technologies and who are seeking some pointers. For others, such as myself, the talk was presented in a lively and interesting manner, with practical activity for the audience towards implementing a pre-programmed app on their laptops. But a practical workshop would be necessary to go further than that and engender some confidence and competence,