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React Native at Instagram

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Re: React Native at Instagram

#111

Post by eclout »

gaza3g wrote: post #96
tedmiston wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great comparison. Slides transcribed: -- Slide 1 -- Maybe we should use React Native: - We know JS / React - We have lots of web developers but few mobile - Our design is brand-focused - We're willing to invest in RN - We want to get into OSS - We want OTA code updates Or maybe we shouldn't: - We don't know JS / React - We already have an iOS team and an Android team - Our designs are heavily platform-specific - We d…

Thanks for this. The thing that captured my interest was the point about being backed by Facebook. Parse was backed by Facebook and look where it is now.

I don't think Facebook backing Parse is relevant. React Native was designed by Facebook, so I'm assuming they understood the design choices of the mobile ecosystem at the time.

Parse was an acquisition by Facebook that didn't end up working out.

Re: React Native at Instagram

#112

Post by kuschku »

bitmapbrother wrote: post #107
40acres wrote: post #6

I 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 referen…

It's not that easy, and not just one field.

DEX uses a method table, listing every method with an ID, and using in the rest of the file only that ID to refer to it.

This ID is limited to 2 bytes.

Obviously, thats an issue, but short of using varint or straightaway uint32 there's few alternatives. And those use either more CPU or memory.

Re: React Native at Instagram

#115

Post by LeoNatan25 »

bennyg wrote: post #105
LeoNatan25 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 produ…

Let me explain the "fed" thing. React Native's number one "feature" is that web developers are able to join in development, or even start a "native" app where it would not have been possible before due to no native development teams. In the web dev world, "fed" /front end developer/ is usually the term for the front end web developers - this is what I meant. (While iOS and Android is also front end, it seems "fed" is almost exclusively used for front end web developers.) So, normally, anyone that has extensive (or even some) experience with web development, would already be familiar with the ecosystem and concepts, while for many native developers, there is quite the cultural shock from a bad ecosystem, no base library support, very uncomfortable debug tools and a flamboyant community behavior (many ridiculously terrible click-bait Medium articles a la "why I switched from [X] to [Y] and it is the best thing ever" and "How [Z] changed the way I write code and it will change the way software development is done").

I am not sure why you have had bad experience with Xamarin. To me, using .NET for shared business logic sounds like a real winner, but I will give you the fact that it helps with web dev. However, as a purely technological observation and no interest in management considerations, I can only argue against using RN at this stage.

Re: React Native at Instagram

#116

Post by [deleted] »

bennyg wrote: post #105
LeoNatan25 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 produ…

[deleted]

Re: React Native at Instagram

#117

Post by ClayFerguson »

ec109685 wrote: post #84
ClayFerguson wrote: post #68

The dirty little secret about React is that it tries to 'reinvent' the DOM tree, and Web Components will be out soon making it all obsolete. Why not just move to Web Components NOW, and not have to rewrite your view logic in 3 or 4 years. Polymer wins easily. React got a head start, sure, but the W3C standards and native browser support for WebComponents makes React redundant and unnecessary, in the very near future.

ReactNative doesn't even have the concept of a DOM, so how can that be its dirty secret?

I don't know anything about ReactNative. Nor did I claim I did. I am simply stating that React itself is a dead-end technology. I would think no one would want to use ReactNative unless they buy into the prospect of React itself having a long life ahead. But doesn't. It's a dead end. WebComponents are the future and react will be unnecessary.

Re: React Native at Instagram

#118

Post by ryancouto »

Did this change occur recently? I've noticed in the past 3-4 months Instagram has become a lot slower. To be fair, it's started to gain some speed in the past month, but I'd be interested to see how this increase in latency coincided with the migration to React Native.

Re: React Native at Instagram

#119

Post by shortstuffsushi »

kuschku wrote: post #112
bitmapbrother wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 referen…

It's not that easy, and not just one field. DEX uses a method table, listing every method with an ID, and using in the rest of the file only that ID to refer to it. This ID is limited to 2 bytes. Obviously, thats an issue, but short of using varint or straightaway uint32 there's few alternatives. And those use either more CPU or memory.

You make it sound like it is as simple as that, only a method table instead of a header field :)

That said, you mention using a varint or uint32 which "use more CPU or memory" -- 16 bits vs 32 bits in applications that use megabytes seems trivial. Can you explain why that's a concern?

Re: React Native at Instagram

#120

Post by weixiyen »

hakanito wrote: post #104
iamleppert wrote: post #53

They 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…

Instagram is the last group that would have problems hiring iOS and Android developers. I'm almost certain that's not the reason for the switch to React Native.

The main reason to switch is that the user cannot tell the difference for their use case, and they get to iterate faster.

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