Between Cascades and CoreNative, the two main Blackberry Playbook C++ frameworks, which is easier to use?

Question

I'm thoroughly confused by the number of SDK/API choices in Blackberry Playbook development. Is one or the other recommended more to complete beginners in mobile app development?

Leaving aside the Flash/Air, HTML and JAVA options, which of the two native C/C++ choices is easier to start in? I take it that Cascades is the future, so unless there's a reason not to recommend that to beginners, I'm guessing it's probably the "easier" choice for someone who wants to get more done, faster.

Moriarty

Cascades gives you a GUI framework out of the box. You can use QT to define UIs (is a JavaScript extension), or you can do the same in C++. The core native is more for games and apps built from zero or ported. Read more here: developer.blackberry.com/develop/platform_choice/ndk.html – Affer

Lol I posted the same link XD. Sorry. – Affer

I did read that link, but I think they almost need a decision tree there instead. Do you want to use a beta for a future platform (Cascades) that hasn't shipped to real devices, or do you want to get into the store and ship in the next three days (Core Native)? Sadly their "cool, awesome, not quite released yet" status of Cascades/BB10 is not made clear enough on that NDK choice page. – Moriarty

Sadly it seems BlackBerry Playbook is dead. Here's hoping that the Blackberry company pulls out of the dive! – Moriarty

I don't think so. Sales didn't go well even for BB10 flagship devices, and the company is going private. – Affer

Answer 1

It seems like you have the gist of it. Cascades is where the focus should be for any beginner building native BlackBerry 10 applications from scratch. It provides high level tools and APIs for UI development and integration with other elements of the platform (BBM, sensors, notifications, etc.) It will let you easily create applications with the BlackBerry feel using Cascades and QML.

The Core Native option is a lower level option for developers who don't want to or can't use Cascades. It is useful for game developers, for example, who are porting an OpenGL ES game from another platform. With the Core Native option you'll have to worry about things like setting up your screen, which Cascades handles for you. However, many open source libraries have already been ported to BB10 which expand the realm of possibilities beyond just what Cascades offers.

Note that this only applies to BlackBerry 10 development, whereas Cascades is not part of the current Playbook OS.

Febricity

So if someone wants to do Blackberry 10 development, a future version of Playbook OS will include blackberry 10 and cascades? – Moriarty

According to the official BlackBerryDev Twitter account the Playbook will be getting Cascades and BB10 to replace the current Playbook OS. So to answer your question - yes, that's right. :) – Febricity

Go to this page: developer.blackberry.com/develop/platform_choice/index.html . Look at the icons in the blue section under each choice. Both Cascades and native have the playbook icon. So it's reasonable to think so. – Affer

Answer 2

Basically, Native is for if you are writing a game or porting and existing app. You have to build all of the UI stuff yourself. Cascades is for normal app developers. You get a lot of really nice UI components with implicit animations for free, and you can work at a higher level language (Qt for application logic, QML and JavaScript for your UI).

There is also nothing stopping you from mixing and matching, it's the same tool. If you started with a Cascades project, but later find that you really need to use some open source library or a block of C code for something, go right ahead. You can even render stuff in OpenGL and drop it right into the rest of your Cascades app via the Foreign Window Control.

The Native and Cascades SDKs are the same thing, you just create a different project.

PlayBook will get BlackBerry 10 sometime after launch.

Constipate

It's true however that many core elements of Blackberry 10, including being QNX based are already "on the playbook OS 2.0" right? In other words, existing playbook OS is more like blackberry 10 than it is like the phone-OS-9, right? – Moriarty

That's correct. BlackBerry 10 and PlayBook are both based on the QNX OS. They are totally different from the old Java OS. – Constipate