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Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

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Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#91

Post by seivan »

warcher wrote: post #29

Truthfully, the language barriers are nothing next to the API barriers dealing with your platform of choice. I am probably giving away my age here, but there's very little that's new under the sun after you've tussled with... say one each of the big three language families. These being: Nasty old C (not going anywhere, ever. Deal with it.), modern scripting languages (Ruby, Python, et al) and the real deal functional…

React-Native isn't just a JS-wrapper, you're trading away language safety features (e.g Swift) with features to help with transient state (React).

Of course you can mitigate that with RxSwift, but it only goes so far.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#92

Post by seivan »

misiti3780 wrote: post #37
warcher wrote: post #29

Truthfully, the language barriers are nothing next to the API barriers dealing with your platform of choice. I am probably giving away my age here, but there's very little that's new under the sun after you've tussled with... say one each of the big three language families. These being: Nasty old C (not going anywhere, ever. Deal with it.), modern scripting languages (Ruby, Python, et al) and the real deal functional…

i agree with you, although i think you are forgetting to add (and maybe it is implied here and i missed it) that learning mobile development requires you to not only learn new language APIs in objC/swift, but you also have to learn some new design patterns (delegation, etc.) and most importantly the SDKs (CocoaTouch) if you can use react native and avoid learning a lot of this it is a big win - I havnt used it yet, a…

React-Native pattern with delegates is passing down functionHandlers to childComponents that would trigger them.

Except Objective-C (and Swift) had protocol conformance. Though come to think of it TypeScript allows you define an interface for a Component, one of those attributes could be a function.

Not really getting away from it. ;-)

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#93

Post by supercoder »

untog wrote: post #56
wvenable wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my mobile I absolutely use and prefer native applications. I only use my mobile web browser for web browsing tasks. On my desktop, I only use my web browser for web browsing (searches, news, content, etc) and I hardly use any web applications. I don't feel like I'm unique in this. I think this "synthesis of both approaches" has merits.

But native applications use webviews more than you might expect. I've heard that the conversation view in the Messages app is a webview, and I know from first-hand experience (CSS not loading) the Instagram feed is one too. I think that webviews get a bad rap because you only notice then when they're done badly.

Messages is definitely not a web view.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#94

Post by mruniverse »

warcher wrote: post #29

Truthfully, the language barriers are nothing next to the API barriers dealing with your platform of choice. I am probably giving away my age here, but there's very little that's new under the sun after you've tussled with... say one each of the big three language families. These being: Nasty old C (not going anywhere, ever. Deal with it.), modern scripting languages (Ruby, Python, et al) and the real deal functional…

I found this true in my case too. The API/Framework was the thing I had to learn.

As far as React Native, I can't see it being used seriously. I think teams are going to have to know native iOS and/or Android programming anyway.

But seeing the mass of apps that never live beyond a year, maybe React Native is just the thing.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#96

Post by seivan »

mostafaberg wrote: post #32
currentoor wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is on the top of HN because people, like me, are interested in it. You say learn to do it the "right way", by that logic we should have stuck to making desktop only apps instead of browser based web apps. I'm not saying this is better or worse. But I certainly think it's an approach worth considering.

It's a great piece of tech, I'm not saying anything against that, I'm saying that it shouldn't be used as a replacement for native programming because you don't want to learn a new language. react will come with huge limitations and deps that you don't want to even think about, it's never easy as "code once, deploy everywhere", this is usually a bad decision any company makes, engineering wise.. same reason as adobe…

React is native. It's a JS interpreter on a separate queue rendering native UILabels and UIViews. I'd say the concept is far more superior to UIKit which disgusts me, and I've worked with for almost seven years now. I honestly think React is the future, but for now we can try to stick with MVVM and RxSwift ;-).

I think you're fundamentally not understanding how React (not just React-native) works.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#97

Post by dcwca »

wvenable wrote: post #55
jkdufair wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Searches and news are web applications. Not to mention Hacker News.

"The general distinction between an interactive web site of any kind and a 'web application' is unclear. Web sites most likely to be referred to as 'web applications' are those which have similar functionality to a desktop software application, or to a mobile app." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_application

An easy distinction I use is: can the user alter the content? If so, it's an application. If not, it's a website.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#98

Post by seivan »

mruniverse wrote: post #94
warcher wrote: post #29

Truthfully, the language barriers are nothing next to the API barriers dealing with your platform of choice. I am probably giving away my age here, but there's very little that's new under the sun after you've tussled with... say one each of the big three language families. These being: Nasty old C (not going anywhere, ever. Deal with it.), modern scripting languages (Ruby, Python, et al) and the real deal functional…

I found this true in my case too. The API/Framework was the thing I had to learn. As far as React Native, I can't see it being used seriously. I think teams are going to have to know native iOS and/or Android programming anyway. But seeing the mass of apps that never live beyond a year, maybe React Native is just the thing.

No one is doubting that you'll need people who know iOS and Android ecosystem. But React isn't just a wrapper over native views. It's a fundamentally different way to write up applications compared to the way you work your way around states and UI.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#99

Post by dcwca »

mostafaberg wrote: post #32
currentoor wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is on the top of HN because people, like me, are interested in it. You say learn to do it the "right way", by that logic we should have stuck to making desktop only apps instead of browser based web apps. I'm not saying this is better or worse. But I certainly think it's an approach worth considering.

It's a great piece of tech, I'm not saying anything against that, I'm saying that it shouldn't be used as a replacement for native programming because you don't want to learn a new language. react will come with huge limitations and deps that you don't want to even think about, it's never easy as "code once, deploy everywhere", this is usually a bad decision any company makes, engineering wise.. same reason as adobe…

This is mainly taking off because native developers want a fast build-run loop, hot code reloading, the ability to update code on the device without pushing a new App Store release, and a shared technology and mental model for writing apps across web, iOS and Android.

This is happening.

Re: Developing Our First iOS App with React Native

#100

Post by erikbigelow »

wvenable wrote: post #23
kin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm betting on is the mobile web browser. I know going HTML5 on mobile has failed in the past, but the future can still come. On desktops, desktop apps ruled until web apps became super powerful. I'm betting on the same fate for mobile web apps.

On my mobile I absolutely use and prefer native applications. I only use my mobile web browser for web browsing tasks. On my desktop, I only use my web browser for web browsing (searches, news, content, etc) and I hardly use any web applications. I don't feel like I'm unique in this. I think this "synthesis of both approaches" has merits.

I'm the opposite of you. I'd much prefer to do everything in a browser. I hate downloading new apps for every little link. I was really hoping the Firefox OS worked out.
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