title: Root cause of flickering problems of web-based mobile apps?
body: <p>I just create a simple <a href="http://cordova.apache.org" rel="nofollow">Apache Cordova</a> app based on <a href="http://jqtjs.com" rel="nofollow">jqTouch</a> und <a href="http://zeptojs.com" rel="nofollow">Zepto</a>.</p>
  
  <p>The app has <strong>3 pages</strong>, one contains one <strong>form of 4 controls</strong>, the other pages <strong>3 navigational elements and a few lines of text</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>Using the <a href="http://jqtjs.com" rel="nofollow">jqTouch's</a> <code>apple</code> and <code>jqtouch</code> themes, the app shows <strong>enormous amounts of flickering</strong>. During a page transition, certain parts of the screen render black.</p>
  
  <p>jqTouch's <code>innsbruck</code> theme has a <strong>bit less flickering</strong>, but still is by no means ready to production.</p>
  
  <p>The test-app <strong>doesn't use add-on javaScript</strong>. All <strong>navigation is done using #pageName</strong> links. Thus, user supplied JavaScript might be no problem here.</p>
  
  <p>Interestingly: If I open the <a href="http://jqtjs.com/preview/demos/main/index.html#home" rel="nofollow">jqTouch demos</a> using the built-in mobile browser, these execute with <strong>much less flickering</strong>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Since the app is very simple - it not even uses additional styles or images -, I wonder what the root cause of these rendering problems is.</strong></p>
  
  <p>Tested using this environment:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Apache Cordova 3.0.5</li>
  <li>Android 4.4.2</li>
  <li>Nexus 7</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Appcelerator Titanium - Poor too</strong></p>
  
  <p>Additionally, I gave <a href="http://www.appcelerator.com" rel="nofollow">Appcelerator Titanium</a> a try using the <a href="https://github.com/appcelerator/alloy/tree/master/samples/rss" rel="nofollow">rss example</a>. Using the test device, the performance was poor too.</p>
  
  <p>Appcelerator claims to compile to native. But due to poor performance, I guess they compile to WebViews too.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Do they? Or does <a href="http://www.appcelerator.com" rel="nofollow">Appcelerator Titanium</a> compiles views and controllers to pure JavaCode?</strong></p>
  
  <p><strong>Next try</strong></p>
  
  <p>Next, I'm going to give <a href="http://xamarin.com/" rel="nofollow">Xamarin</a> a try. </p>