37signals Basecamp Mobile HTML5 app for WebKit browsers

Basecamp Mobile is written in CoffeeScript using our in-house Cinco mobile framework, which ties together Backbone.js, Zepto, the Eco templating language (<a href="https://github.com/sstephenson/eco" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/sstephenson/eco</a>), and Stitch (<a href="https://github.com/sstephenson/stitch" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/sstephenson/stitch</a>).

This is the way to go guys - HTML5 web apps will eventually kill native apps anyway. Might take a few years, but local decisions, like yours, show the dynamics behind that prediction.

This being one of the first large production CoffeeScript apps, did you run into any unexpected trouble with using a language other than JavaScript? (Naturally, I ask for selfish reasons...)

I was very bullish on mobile HTML5 apps a couple of months but that has changed. As a user I really appreciate native apps on iOS and their overall consistent UI and efficient use of the limited screen real estate.<p>Basecamp feels totally different compared to other native apps on the iPhone: the back button looks weird, no fixed navigation bar and I'd expect to see the typical tab bars (all things you currently can't really imitate with HTML/CSS/JS).<p>It may not be a shit sandwich (as in <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2007/06/wwdc_2007_keynote" rel="nofollow">http://daringfireball.net/2007/06/wwdc_2007_keynote</a> ) but still it's clearly a trade-off driven by developmnt concerns. I totally understand that it's not really feasable to develop native apps for all those mobile platforms out there, but again it doesn't feel like a decision made from the user's perspective.

What compromises did you have to make by going for an HTML5 app instead of native app? Notifications/Reminders?

My favorite thing about this is Jason Fried's response to a troll in the comments.<p>Troll - "Disappointment"<p>Jason - "Good morning to you as well."<p>I've been studying his responses to customer feedback, both positive and negative, for a while now and have learned a lot. Just read his tweets for a lesson in great customer service.

A question I haven't yet found a satisfactory answer to: should the mobile version of a webapp like Basecamp have mobile marketing pages or just a login form?

Could someone explain why something like eco makes sense in this context instead of just using rails (ERB) templates. Presumably you have to query the rails backend at some point to get the data. Are the templates in coffeescript for cache-ability? Thanks!

Pretty glad there are already great native apps out there. Lowest-common denominator remains lowest-common denominator whether or not it's done for a principle.

I thought something like this might be coming after seeing the Chalkboard app.<p>I personally think that apps in this style are better long-term than native apps for most business-y things.

I'm so glad to see a heavy hitter like 37signals coming out in opposition to "app madness".<p>As I've commented here before, I see the current native app trend as nothing more than a replay of the browser wars of the early 2000's - folks developing with IE specific features etc.<p>The natural tendency for programmers is to do <i>less</i> work. This native app bollocks is purely the result of commercial interests of device manufacturers: if you make it harder to develop cross platform stuff then developers must choose a platform. If developers must choose a plaform that means one platform will have all the coolest stuff, driving sales of the device.<p>I own and love my Nokia e72 and was really pissed off when 37signals released an iPhone app rather than creating a mobile web app.<p>The Nokia e72 browser probably won't cope with the HTML5ness of the Basecamp offering but at least there's hope! I will never use an iPhone because I need a qwerty keyboard (try typing find . -name "*.php" | xargs grep -il "function someFunction" on your iphone keyboard - or try editing a file in vim via SSH ... yeah, didn't think so).<p>At least with this trend maybe my next phone will have access to mobile Highrise goodness!

This is great. I've seen slight issues though. On my phone (iPhone 4) when I was clicking around the todo lists, they responded very slowly to my taps and I was able to highlight todo lists without actually going to them.<p>However, I love that you guys are doing this. I'm excited to see the cinco framework as well. I have been looking for a mobile platform, I've used Sencha a bit, but find it difficult to learn and bloated.

I think the correct decision is to make a native shell that holds an HTML5 app for iPhone and Android. That does not require any additional developers to accomplish and you can track/save the state locally.<p>That way it can be downloaded from the app store as that's what people are used to anyways.