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Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

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Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#61

Post by pjmlp »

crispinb wrote: post #55
pjmlp wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, many digital web agencies are going through that route for mobile web sites, instead of having to deal with native toolchains. Do you also consider Google and Apple's move desperate then? While Microsoft has definitively bombed on phones, they are doing pretty alright on convertible laptops/hybrid tablets. As for best option, I also mentioned a couple of other ones, which I advocate as alternative to PWAs. I see…

It was your invocation of Microsoft's move I considered desperate. You're still studiously avoid mentioning any actual PWAs. I'm someone who wishes PWAs would take over, as I dislike all the OSs and don't want my usage habits or data to be tied to them. But as of now it's not happening, is it? If a person was trying to advise a developer new to mobile apps, with their interests rather than the advisor's tastes in min…

Because the ones I am fully aware as PWAs, are the projects I worked on for internal enterprise customers, not something that joe and jane get on their devices.

EDIT: besides the examples posted by lucasverra, you have KaiOS with its relatively big Asian market share, Google Go-Apps variants of their apps are mostly PWAs.

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#62

Post by realharo »

onion2k wrote: post #48
reactor wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dabbled with Dart for sometime, got an impression that a competent Java/C# developer can pick up Dart in no time, I think hiring shouldn't be an issue.

There are a bunch of problems. Firstly, people simply don't apply for jobs that use languages they don't know. That makes filling a role really hard. Secondly, if someone has to learn the language when they join that puts a lag on how quickly they can be useful. You can't go as fast, which is bad if you're a startup. And lastly, companies are (usually) very reluctant to let someone spend the first few months getting…

>Firstly, people simply don't apply for jobs that use languages they don't know.

That could be because experience with that language is often listed as a requirement.

>someone spend the first few months getting up to speed

In my opinion, "few months" is a huge overestimation, if we're talking about an otherwise experienced mobile developer who understands the underlying platforms (Android, iOS) well. A few weeks should be enough to get up to like 90% of their usual productivity (ballpark guess).

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#63

Post by mrpickels »

if you're a corporate slave then pick react native because it's easier to find a JOB with it. If you're a dinosaur who started his career coding in Delphi then pick Xamarin. If you want to enjoy development and make some side project/startup pick Flutter. If you don't respect yourself or you are funny - C++ + native views, that's a huge ROFL.

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#64

Post by WA »

lucasverra wrote: post #59
WA wrote: post #9

Although unpopular on HN: Cordova-based apps with a good mobile look-alike framework can get you very far for a smallish app. Advantages: - truly one code base - iOS, Android, and web apps - JavaScript skills are useful - experience is "good enough" for the average user Downsides: - almost no fine-grained control of input controls (like which keyboard to show) - doesn’t respect users’ accessibility options of the OS…

Excellent recap. Can you link to one app ported on the 3 platforms (Android,iOS,Web) so we can test performance from a UX point of view ?

Well, you could try the Ionic Conference App (just a demo app): https://github.com/ionic-team/ionic-conference-app

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#65

Post by WA »

pjmlp wrote: post #19
WA wrote: post #9

Although unpopular on HN: Cordova-based apps with a good mobile look-alike framework can get you very far for a smallish app. Advantages: - truly one code base - iOS, Android, and web apps - JavaScript skills are useful - experience is "good enough" for the average user Downsides: - almost no fine-grained control of input controls (like which keyboard to show) - doesn’t respect users’ accessibility options of the OS…

I used them a couple of times, for that kind of user experience I rather use a PWA.

Yeah, but the average user doesn't know what a PWA is and they want to install an app through the app store. Furthermore, with Cordova, you can also use plugins such as In-App-Purchases or access to more persistent storage (SQLite) instead of what the browser offers.

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#66

Post by aishna23232323 »

We wrote an article on the exact same topic when we were making this decision ourselves: https://www.mobiledeveloper.net/blog/flutter-or-react-native, to summarize here are the factors that we have considered -

User Interface - Flutter works flawlessly with proprietory widgets

Development Time - React takes less time

Performance - Flutter makes it easy for developers to use the existing code

Stability - React is more stable

Programming Language - React uses Javascript and Flutter uses Dart

At the end of the article, you will be able to pull yourself from this dilemma.

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#67

Post by pjmlp »

WA wrote: post #65
pjmlp wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used them a couple of times, for that kind of user experience I rather use a PWA.

Yeah, but the average user doesn't know what a PWA is and they want to install an app through the app store. Furthermore, with Cordova, you can also use plugins such as In-App-Purchases or access to more persistent storage (SQLite) instead of what the browser offers.

You can package PWAs via the stores as well, in which case they are able to access native features as if they were browser APIs.

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#68

Post by leerob »

petre wrote: post #39
reactor wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dabbled with Dart for sometime, got an impression that a competent Java/C# developer can pick up Dart in no time, I think hiring shouldn't be an issue.

Even a Js dev can pick up Dart quite fast. At least the language is sane compared to Js.

It's not about how fast they can pick it up. It's about whether they want to or not. And most devs doing JavaScript work want to stay in JS land.

Similarly, good luck finding help with Dart issues versus the JavaScript ecosystem.

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#69

Post by mrpickels »

rvz wrote: post #46

I have seen this question before on HN and I think my previous response seems to be relevant to this and should help the OP. This ultimately depends on your situation. I would have said Flutter since it is past 1.0 and RN is still in beta. But my main problem here is that you will quickly run into difficulty in attempting to use C/C++ libraries in Dart. Dart has beta support for native FFI but it is not stable unlike…

it's so.hard(to () => { learn.a.new * language; they.are(all + sooo different) }

Re: Ask HN: React Native or Flutter?

#70

Post by mrpickels »

bsaul wrote: post #42
latchkey wrote: post #2

I picked Flutter and I'm really happy with it. The latest release of Flutter makes me even happier as there are some nice improvements. I'm using Material components because for me it is the bootstrap of UX these days and requires little thought to make a fairly clean UX. As a developer I can just drop in components as necessary. * Hot reload, on device, works and works well. * Really nice error messages (in latest r…

« fast » isn’t that obvious. The « vegetable » demo app on the app store lags on scrolling on an iphone10.

because your phone is not vegan
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