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SDL VS Apache Cordova

Compare SDL VS Apache Cordova and see what are their differences

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SDL logo SDL

Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level...

Apache Cordova logo Apache Cordova

Platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript
  • SDL Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-26
  • Apache Cordova Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17

SDL features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    SDL supports multiple operating systems including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android, allowing developers to write code once and run it on various platforms.
  • Simplified Development
    SDL provides a simple and straightforward API for handling graphics, sound, and input, making it easier for developers to create multimedia applications and games without needing to write platform-specific code.
  • Community Support
    SDL has a large and active community along with extensive documentation and tutorials, which can be immensely helpful for both new and experienced developers.
  • Extensible
    SDL is highly extensible with multiple add-on libraries available, such as SDL_image, SDL_mixer, and SDL_ttf, which provide additional functionality for handling images, audio, and fonts respectively.
  • Lightweight and Efficient
    SDL is designed to be lightweight and efficient, capable of running on a wide range of hardware with minimal overhead, making it suitable for performance-critical applications such as games.
  • Open Source
    SDL is open-source software, licensed under the zlib license, which allows developers to use, modify, and distribute their own SDL-based software freely.

Possible disadvantages of SDL

  • Limited 3D Support
    SDL is primarily designed for 2D graphics and does not include advanced 3D graphics functionality, limiting its use for 3D game development without integrating it with other libraries like OpenGL.
  • Learning Curve
    While simpler than many alternatives, SDL still requires a learning curve, especially for developers who are unfamiliar with C/C++ programming or game development concepts.
  • Less Abstracted than Some Frameworks
    SDL offers lower-level access to hardware and does not provide high-level abstractions found in some other game development frameworks, which can result in more complex code for certain tasks.
  • Controller and Input Limitations
    SDL's support for various controllers and input devices can be less comprehensive than some other libraries, requiring additional effort or third-party solutions to achieve full functionality.
  • Debugging and Profiling
    Debugging and profiling SDL applications can be more challenging compared to using certain other game development frameworks that come with integrated tools for these purposes.

Apache Cordova features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Apache Cordova enables developers to build applications for multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.) using a single codebase, which saves time and resources.
  • Use of Web Technologies
    Cordova allows the use of standard web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, making it accessible for web developers to create mobile applications without needing to learn platform-specific languages.
  • Extensive Plugin Ecosystem
    Cordova provides a wide range of plugins that enable access to native device functionalities (such as the camera, accelerometer, GPS, etc.), allowing for more versatile app development.
  • Cost Effective
    By reducing the need for multiple native developers and leveraging a single web development team, Cordova can significantly cut down the costs of application development.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, Apache Cordova benefits from community support and contributions, leading to continuous improvements and a wealth of shared knowledge and code.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Cordova

  • Performance Issues
    Applications built with Cordova may experience performance issues, especially with complex graphical or computational tasks, as they are essentially web applications wrapped in a native container.
  • Limited Native Functionality
    Although Cordova provides many plugins, accessing the latest native features often requires custom development, which can be complicated and time-consuming.
  • Dependency on Plugins
    Developers often rely heavily on third-party plugins to access native features. If these plugins are not well-maintained, they can introduce compatibility issues and bugs.
  • User Experience
    The user experience of Cordova-based apps may not be as smooth or responsive as fully native applications, potentially leading to lower user satisfaction.
  • Security Concerns
    Using multiple plugins and technologies can increase the surface area for security vulnerabilities. Also, web-based applications can be more susceptible to common web security issues.

SDL videos

Useful review features in SDL Trados Studio

More videos:

  • Review - Reviewing translations in SDL Trados Studio 2019
  • Review - Doral SDL-A All-Season TIRE REVIEW + SNOW

Apache Cordova videos

Apache Cordova - Hello World from Android and iOS

More videos:

  • Review - What’s Your View on Apache Cordova?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SDL and Apache Cordova)
Game Engine
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Game Development
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Framework
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare SDL and Apache Cordova

SDL Reviews

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Apache Cordova Reviews

Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
Developed by Apache Cordova, PhoneGap is used extensively for developing cross-platform mobile with the use of several web technologies. It lets developers write code by using HTML, CSS & JavaScript and package it as a native app. Being a simple framework, it includes the largest collection of plugins that extend its wide functionality.
Top 5 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform Development
Apache Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework that lets you create cross-platform apps using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Like NativeScript, Apache Cordova is more accessible to developers comfortable with web development, especially Angular or VueJS.
Source: www.miquido.com
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
Oracle Mobile Application Framework (MAF) offers cross-platform development using standards like HTML5 and JavaScript containerized via Apache Cordova. Oracle MAF delivers excellent offline support capabilities matching the needs of field service teams and remote inspectors. With tools like Oracle Database and middleware, MAF apps cache relevant data subsets locally while...
Top 10 Android Studio Alternatives For App Development
Apache Cordova is used for building mobile applications with the help of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. It is an open-source mobile application development framework that was created by Nitobi.
10 Best Android Studio Alternatives For App Development
Apache Cordova is a tool to develop Android App Development. It enables software engineers to build apps for Android mobile phones. Using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript instead of relying on platform-specific APIs. Like those in Android, iOS or Windows phones. When you are using Apache Cordova APIs, an app can be developed without any native code (like Java, objective-C, etc.) from...
Source: techdator.net

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Cordova should be more popular than SDL. It has been mentiond 44 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

SDL mentions (19)

  • New Year, New Game Engine - Nikola Engine Devlog 0
    You see, for the past several years I have used many programming languages and many more game frameworks and libraries. Programming languages like Java, C#, C++, and even, sadly, JavaScript (I know...). Game frameworks like LWJGL, SDL2, Raylib, MonoGame, SFML, and many more. Essentially, I have seen it all. Out of all of them, I think SDL2 was closer to what I was looking for, though, Raylib was the one I used the... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How was Pico8 made?
    In addition to the excellent video /u/DookieChumo linked, you can also look in the manual to see some of the technologies used. It's written in C, using SDL. If you're interested in something like a devlog, you could read the changelog to see its changes and the development of features over the years. Lua is fairly easy to embed into other programs, so you can write programs that use Lua scripts to decide what to... Source: over 2 years ago
  • How does one make their own GUI from scratch? (no GUI libraries)
    You could use the cross-platform library SDL. It has Python bindings: PySDL2. Source: over 2 years ago
  • I want to become a game dev one day, can you guys help me?
    You can use SDL, which is pretty easy to get into, has straight-forward (if somewhat sparse) documentation and has lots of pretty decent tutorials - see the links on the web site. Source: over 2 years ago
  • what #include<iostream> does in C++ Program ?
    Official website is https://libsdl.org where you can read more about download and install this library because it might not work on your computer. Source: over 2 years ago
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Apache Cordova mentions (44)

  • Show HN: I Made a Web App to Bring Children's Drawings to Life
    This is truly amazing. Is there a 'How it Works' a 'Potentials' section? I work with things that push to inspire creativity and learning to foster the passion behind creativity and authentic works where otherwise we'd see how 'AI copies our work' and now we can see how AI can bring works to life and make them more fun. Over-all would you like to see schools adopting your project? I didn't see a contact form but... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • PWAs wont replace native iOS apps
    Anyone have experience with/opinions on Apache Cordova? [1] It seems like it would solve most of the PWA issues. Although I vaguely recall reading that Apple is not too fond of apps that are basically just wrapped web views. [1] https://cordova.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What's the latest way of submitting pwas to the app stores?
    Has anyone tried pwa builder?[2] Thank you for any insights! [0]https://cordova.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Why does everyone "suddenly" hate Single Page Apps?
    A little over a decade ago, I worked on the open-source project Apache Cordova/Adobe PhoneGap, first at IBM and later at Adobe. Apache Cordova enables you to build mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript while targeting multiple platforms with one code base. In today’s technology landscape, mobile is dominated by iOS and Android. In the early 2010’s we were awash in mobile platforms from BlackBerry,... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • The right way to build multi platform apps in 2023 using web tech. ?
    There are layers that offer access to native APIs like capacitor, cordova and nativescript. Apparently sometimes multiple of them should be used, but I didn't understand what are the differences even after reading the announcement. These seem to be frontend agnostic technologies and Capacitor is apparently the more modern choice at the moment. Source: over 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing SDL and Apache Cordova, you can also consider the following products

Rev.com - Transcriptions, captions, and subtitles that are affordable, fast, and high-quality.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

ABBYY - ABBYY's leading AI and machine learning technology solutions range from process analysis, data capture, pdf editor, text and content recognition (OCR) and extraction, combining process and content insights to deliver digital intelligence.

PhoneGap - Easily create apps using the web technologies you know and love: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Lilt - Interactive, adaptive translation platform

Ionic - Ionic is a cross-platform mobile development stack for building performant apps on all platforms with open web technologies.