React and React Native are pretty great pieces of tech, hopefully the ClojureScript story for them continues to improve. When I need to make a mobile app again I can't think of a reason I'd write it in Java/Swift.
React Native at Instagram
101–110 of 238 posts
Re: React Native at Instagram
#102I didn't know what single/multi-dex means so i looked it up. Android application (APK) files contain executable bytecode files in the form of Dalvik Executable (DEX) files, which contain the compiled code used to run your app. The Dalvik Executable specification limits the total number of methods that can be referenced within a single DEX file to 65,536, including Android framework methods, library methods, and metho…
Usually most of the methods are from dependencies. Interestingly enough, some of Google's own libraries like Guava and Google Play Services are commonly what pushes apps over the limit.
True, but Google Play Services can now be cherry picked so you can depend only on what you want to use rather than a blanket dependency. See table one here: https://developers.google.com/android/guides/setup
Re: React Native at Instagram
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone who was in your shoes last year as I made a job transition into a lead developer role at a new company. I picked React Native for a small project over Swift: https://studio.carnegiemuseums.org/out-loud-cdc979453ef0#.rh... . It was worth it. Not only because immutable render functions make view code extremely pleasurable to write, but also because it's mostly JS and JSX it allowed me to quickly spin up a we…
Looking at https://github.com/CMP-Studio/TheWarholOutLoud , I see that you only support iOS. Any particular reason for that? Seeing as you have chosen React Native, why have you not used the number one feature, which is cross-platform development? Often I see people touting "cross-platform development", but then, in practice, one platform always gets priority, and when it comes to support the other, a lot of the view…
Sure. The project only had to support iOS, our research shows that about 70% of this museum's goers use iOS devices. So MVP; iOS first.
I wouldn't list "cross-platform development" development as the most important feature to me. If that is the case then I would just as easily used Ionic or Cordova which are far more stable then React Native currently is. Rather it was a combination of things that got me to use React Native for a project:
1. Redux - Single direction data flow 2. React - Pure render functions 3. Ease - Both easier to learn/use and faster iteration times vs. Native.
This project was honestly a testing ground for React Native for my team and it was a small project that if we decided to we could switch to natively without too much of a time hit. We fell in love with pure render functions and single directional data flow and it would be hard to go back to MVC-like architectures. (Yes their are libraries for that for Native platforms but not with the same ecosystem and community behind them as React Native has.)
As for how hard would be to port over? I'd say we would could keep all the logic and would have to redo 40 - 50% of the UI for Android. Which is higher then it would be now because when we started navigation in React Native was the wild west so we dropped into a Native solution.
Our next project however is a cross platform React Native app, which we hope to release by the end of this month. This app shares about 80% - 85% of the code between platforms. We also believe as a team to making apps feel native to their platform so Tab Bars on iOS and hamburger menus on Android, which is why our numbers are lower then other apps that use their own branded UI vs. platform UI.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#104They probably traded a really nice iOS codebase that had been maintained and improved upon for something that is going to end up with tons of special cases for when the UI is running on iOS/Android etc and make it incredibly difficult to test, reason about. Instead of improving the code on each respective platform, you end up with an inbred red-headed step child that shares the limitations and thorns of each, all smu…
I would guess one reason for Instagram to go the RN route is simply easier hiring.
For every really good iOS/Android developer, there are probably 10 really good web developers that easily can pick up RN. As a web developer myself, it's a full time job to keep up with the JS ecosystem alone.
I tried learning ObjC a few years back but gave up because of limited time, weird syntax and very slow feedback loop.
Now I am stoked that I can finally build native apps with the web tech I spent so much time learning, and I don't think I'm alone in that regard.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Feds? Dude, I've been developing on the iOS platform since 2011 and Android not much later than that. I've developed in Xamarin, and RN has a MUCH better development toolchain and dev experience. I really don't understand the JS hate. I'm using typescript for RN development and I have had 0 problems so far. JS/TS dev velocity is just so much better than ObjC/Java. Swift is a huge step in the right direction.
Do I really deserve the "dude" treatment? Not sure how you developed with Xamarin, or how long ago, but it most definitely does not have worse toolchain development. Starting with a proper IDE, to compilation, to native-interop, to performance, to actual base library that exists. As a side note, it seems http://subvertapps.com is down.
Thanks for pointing that out, forgot my old site was still in the profile.
What do you mean by feds? That's still a very confusing statement. Switched off of Xamarin about 8 months ago and haven't looked back. My organization had a ton of problems with Xamarin, without honestly that much gain at all. We still needed specific devs for Android and iOS. Sharing component and state code has been an absolute boon in productivity and speed in getting a world class suite of apps out. That plus a React stack for Web means I can help out on Web with no ramp up, and vice versa.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems like a big plus for React Native. What are the negatives you have found?
To add to the good responses by the others, React Native development, on a good day, feels like the best of web dev and native dev (reload to see the change, `yarn add && react-native link` to add a new NPM package, run the app on devices while debugging with Chrome dev tool). On a bad day, it feels like the ultimate force unification from the worst of both worlds (nothing ever stays stable, ever; were you expecting…
This perfectly describes my experience with RN. Overall, a positive experience, but some days are the worst.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#107I didn't know what single/multi-dex means so i looked it up. Android application (APK) files contain executable bytecode files in the form of Dalvik Executable (DEX) files, which contain the compiled code used to run your app. The Dalvik Executable specification limits the total number of methods that can be referenced within a single DEX file to 65,536, including Android framework methods, library methods, and metho…
This is one of those Android design decisions that Google probably wishes they could get to do over again. The DEX header file format allocates only 2 bytes to hold the number of methods the app can reference. This was a very short sighted decision that has come back to bite them repeatedly. It would be interesting to know why they only allocated 2 bytes instead of 4 which would have given them the ability to reference over 4 billion methods. If their reasoning was for cost saving measures than it was a pretty silly decision. There has been some talk about revising the DEX header file format to correct some of the early design mistakes, but I'm not sure when they'll get around to it.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looking at https://github.com/CMP-Studio/TheWarholOutLoud , I see that you only support iOS. Any particular reason for that? Seeing as you have chosen React Native, why have you not used the number one feature, which is cross-platform development? Often I see people touting "cross-platform development", but then, in practice, one platform always gets priority, and when it comes to support the other, a lot of the view…
Sure. The project only had to support iOS, our research shows that about 70% of this museum's goers use iOS devices. So MVP; iOS first. I wouldn't list "cross-platform development" development as the most important feature to me. If that is the case then I would just as easily used Ionic or Cordova which are far more stable then React Native currently is. Rather it was a combination of things that got me to use React…
FYI Tab Bars are now recommended by Google for Android as well http://www.androidauthority.com/bottom-navigation-material-d... There is a lot of data that shows hamburger menus create big discoverability issues and Google highly discourages uses them now.
So if anything the general layout of an iOS app would meet the latest Android Design Guidelines quite well. There may be certain "iOSy" things left like very blurry backgrounds but overall there's little reason to have a different UI layout across platforms at this point.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#109Great engineering. Instagram always runs snappy and also with low bandwidth (>1Mbit/s). Meanwhile Snapchat does not even know how to download first clicked story video first.
Re: React Native at Instagram
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure. The project only had to support iOS, our research shows that about 70% of this museum's goers use iOS devices. So MVP; iOS first. I wouldn't list "cross-platform development" development as the most important feature to me. If that is the case then I would just as easily used Ionic or Cordova which are far more stable then React Native currently is. Rather it was a combination of things that got me to use React…
FYI Tab Bars are now recommended by Google for Android as well http://www.androidauthority.com/bottom-navigation-material-d... There is a lot of data that shows hamburger menus create big discoverability issues and Google highly discourages uses them now. So if anything the general layout of an iOS app would meet the latest Android Design Guidelines quite well. There may be certain "iOSy" things left like very blurry…
I think the main issue is that since the Android guidelines have changed so many times in a short period of time, it makes it very confusing to follow the latest ones. Add on top of that even Google's own apps fail at following some of the most established Material Design guidelines, it is very difficult to have proper examples to look at when trying to design an Android app.