Textarea elements are also sometimes behaving weird when selecting text, just like your regular iOS Safari.
And of course, all input elements and animations don’t respect your OS accessibility settings. Neglectable in some apps, not in others.
I probably wouldn’t write a diary app or an app for writers in Ionic, but for most other things it’s good enough.
Keep in mind that all development comes with trade offs. Native iOS development gives you maximal control over the platform, but your code isn’t really re-usable. As a solo developer, having a single code base is gold and customers don’t really care.
If you were to start over, would you still choose Ionic and Cordova, or go with something else like Xamarin or React Native?
I'm considering switching to these, because it gives me a bit more control over all of the code (and I'm not really a fan of Angular). But I'd use JS for apps again whenever I can. It's just so much more convenient and especially since I can release a PWA or web version without much effort.
You make a ton of concessions (imo) by locking yourself in a webview.
It used to be a web app, but nowadays, most people use it as an app.
> "What did you have to learn, tech-wise, to be able to build it?"
At first, PHP. Then JS. I've been coding for 15-20 years now. The app is made in Ionic + Cordova. As I wrote often here on HN: End users give zero fucks about the technology. Most people (unless they're designers or coders) don't even see the difference between a native app and a hybrid one.
As a single developer, Ionic is great, because you have truly one code base for all platforms. If the apps were native, I probably couldn't do all of this by myself.
> "How long did it take you, from your first line of code until you released the first prototype?"
2-3 weeks, and then I iterated a lot with actual feedback. But: I didn't introduce a pricing model for the first couple years. It was a hobby back then. It also was a different internet. So take this with a grain of salt. I don't have experience on how to start a niche product and get paying customers from day 1.
> How did you get your first user(s)?
Through forums.
> How did you get the business idea (without details)?
A friend of mine said: "It'd be great if there was a software that could do X". It wasn't directly my own pain point, but of a friend. I didn't work in that field before, but read a lot over the years to acquire the domain knowledge.
Thanks :)