When we put the flag --type=ionic1 Ionic CLI will generate a new boilerplate project based on AngularJS.
When we just create a new Ionic project, it will be based on Angular 7.
So the framework is different, but my question is whether Ionic based on AngularJS and Ionic based on Angular 7 are relying on the same Ionic 4 core, OR, Ionic 1 relies on Ionic 1 and Ionic Angular 7 relies on Ionic 4?
Are they both the same Ionic 4 core with the current best performances that Ionic framework can offer?
My understanding is that n Ionic 1 app will still use the Ionic 1 component library. Unless you are maintaining an Ionic 1 application, there should be no reason to start a new application with Ionic 1 that I can think of.
With that said, I think the latest release of AngularJS does support custom elements, so you could introduce the Ionic 4 components that way, but again… why?
I don’t want to use Ionic 1 core, I want to use Ionic 4 core based on AngularJS (1.7.2) instead of Angular 7 / React or others.
The reason is simple, AngularJS is by far the best framework in the front end programming.
Angular 7 is too complicated, it takes up to 5 seconds to re-compile, while AngularJS + Webpack 4 with Hot reload takes just 10ms.
AngularJS allows me to custom my project, while Angular 7 paved the way as it likes and every change you do can cause lots of errors.
The best advice I can give is to explore the Ionic components as stand alone web components and pull them in that way. Like I said, AngularJS does support Custom Web Elements, so it should be possible. I have never seen a demo of it.
Good luck