Design Pattern Evaluation of Mobile and Web Based Application Frameworks

Abstract

Design patterns are a cornerstone in modern software development but the rapid growth of mobile development could present a major hindrance to software engineers if current techniques used for desktop web applications do not transfer to this environment well enough. This research study evaluates the support provided for three commonly used design patterns in five web and eight mobile frameworks. The study was conducted from a programming language agnostic perspective to accurately reflect the variety in development techniques used in practice and so as not to unduly influence the results. Our findings suggest that mobile frameworks struggle to support the common design patterns very well, lagging some way behind existing web frameworks. This may prove a considerable barrier for web and desktop developers looking to introduce mobile applications.