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Transition to React Native

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Transition to React Native

#91

Post by intev »

EvilEy3 wrote: post #74
SatvikBeri wrote: post #27

I'm skeptical of most "we switched from X to Y" posts, but the thought process here seems pretty solid. * They had a much harder time hiring mobile developers than web developers, and per-person productivity was also lower * They prototyped an app before committing to a new technology * Similarly, they tested a change to the existing app before switching * They specifically invested time to cross-train people, and te…

> They had a much harder time hiring mobile developers than web developers, and per-person productivity was also lower That's what happens when you pay peanuts.

Oh? You know everyone's salaries?

Re: Transition to React Native

#92

Post by intev »

EvilEy3 wrote: post #82

Just when there are two arguably most important migrations in mobile world happening(Compose and SwiftUI), they decided to migrate to inferior tech.

*According to you. Every 5 or so years there's an "important" transition happening. That's tech. There's been many stories written about companies that live on the bleeding edge. I don't remember any of them ending particularly well.

Re: Transition to React Native

#93

Post by intev »

EvilEy3 wrote: post #78
rapsey wrote: post #8

How does the app perform now?

Android performance is garbage. Source: just downloaded app.

I call BS. I just downloaded it and it works fine. Literally every single one of your comments has it out for this transition. I trust my own experience and their data.

Re: Transition to React Native

#94

Post by whazor »

cageface wrote: post #20

I've been doing a RN app lately after not using it for almost two years. It's still a very fast way to iterate on both Android & iOS but it also still feels extremely brittle. I've tried and failed to upgrade to the latest version of RN several times now but every time gotten tangled up in dependency hell. I also haven't been able to get it to build on my M1 Mac at all. RN is good for fast prototyping and market valu…

I think also a requirement is to have experts in React, iOS, and Android. Plus maybe even someone who focuses fully on React Native internals. Those dedicated people ensure all components compile and other developers can be productive. With the headcount of Coinbase it seems to be worth it.

Re: Transition to React Native

#95

Post by intev »

EvilEy3 wrote: post #80
ec109685 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How utterly dismissive. They rebuilt their apps, increased the number of developers able to contribute to their codebase and improved metrics. That should be praised. Their point about brownfield development was a good one. In my experience the intersection between RN and Native (both code and people) is the biggest impediment.

You know what is dismissive? Switching to a lowest common denominator and offer subpar experience. This is what happens when you offer React Natives to users. They dismissed advancements in native development and they'll pay the price the future. It's literally laughable that they decided to transition to half dead tech when Compose and SwiftUI are ramping up.

It's literally laughable that you call react native a half dead tech. It's still *the* most actively developed ecosystem for cross platform apps. Don't believe me? See https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020

Moving such a mature company's codebase to bleeding edge tech is one of the stupidest decisions you can make. Is there some price to be paid to be in the future? I'm sure there will be, as there will be with any non native platform. Whether is will be a deal breaker is to be seen.

Re: Transition to React Native

#96

Post by intev »

EvilEy3 wrote: post #72

What an attrocity. You could've just said that you no longer want to invest in mobile talent. Just opened Coinbase Android app: * Overall slow * Jank in transitions * When dialog pops up and you close it, there's a dangling shadow in the air * You open privacy policy and application is killed in background and you see splash screen again with no state restoration, what the f? Hot garbage, the time you spent on this c…

What has gotten you so upset about this transition? I don't understand. All your comments are so vicious with no backing.

>You could've just said that you no longer want to invest in mobile talent.

How does this even track? They had to retrain their engineers.

I call complete BS with your app experience. I have a Redmi and the app works flawlessly. They seem to have internal data to prove it. They were under no obligation to make the blog post if they didn't think it was successful. If anything they are going against the grain here so they know there are lots of people watching.

Re: Transition to React Native

#97

Post by EvilEy3 »

intev wrote: post #92
EvilEy3 wrote: post #82

Just when there are two arguably most important migrations in mobile world happening(Compose and SwiftUI), they decided to migrate to inferior tech.

*According to you. Every 5 or so years there's an "important" transition happening. That's tech. There's been many stories written about companies that live on the bleeding edge. I don't remember any of them ending particularly well.

> Every 5 or so years there's an "important" transition happening.

Name at least one change in Android SDK that can come close to revolution that is Compose. And same for iOS/Mac and SwiftUI.

Compose and SwiftUI are doing to mobile what React did to web. It arguably single most important change that happened since the inception of mobile platforms.

> There's been many stories written about companies that live on the bleeding edge. I don't remember any of them ending particularly well.

What?

Re: Transition to React Native

#98

Post by intev »

EvilEy3 wrote: post #97
intev wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*According to you. Every 5 or so years there's an "important" transition happening. That's tech. There's been many stories written about companies that live on the bleeding edge. I don't remember any of them ending particularly well.

> Every 5 or so years there's an "important" transition happening. Name at least one change in Android SDK that can come close to revolution that is Compose. And same for iOS/Mac and SwiftUI. Compose and SwiftUI are doing to mobile what React did to web. It arguably single most important change that happened since the inception of mobile platforms. > There's been many stories written about companies that live on the…

I agree the current one is a major change but it's not mature yet. It hasn't stood the test of time. Twitter was built on RoR when that was the coolest new thing to build things on and Uber's booking engine was on Node.js when everything was being run on Node. I'm sure there's more I'm missing. .

Re: Transition to React Native

#99

Post by EvilEy3 »

intev wrote: post #95
EvilEy3 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what is dismissive? Switching to a lowest common denominator and offer subpar experience. This is what happens when you offer React Natives to users. They dismissed advancements in native development and they'll pay the price the future. It's literally laughable that they decided to transition to half dead tech when Compose and SwiftUI are ramping up.

It's literally laughable that you call react native a half dead tech. It's still *the* most actively developed ecosystem for cross platform apps. Don't believe me? See https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020 Moving such a mature company's codebase to bleeding edge tech is one of the stupidest decisions you can make. Is there some price to be paid to be in the future? I'm sure there will be, as there will be wi…

> It's still the most actively developed ecosystem for cross platform apps. Don't believe me? See https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020

Riiiight, and quickly followed by Xamarin and Cordova. Lol.

Of course it is not dead in terms of usage. It is more "dead" for anything complex.

I'm looking from a perspective of a best experience, best performance and best integration. If your only reasoning is "we can't afford proper mobile developers" that's probably not the best pitch for a technical folk.

Even Facebook, creators of React Native don't use it.

> Moving such a mature company's codebase to bleeding edge tech is one of the stupidest decisions you can make. Is there some price to be paid to be in the future? I'm sure there will be, as there will be with any non native platform. Whether is will be a deal breaker is to be seen.

Who says about moving now?

Re: Transition to React Native

#100

Post by hardwaresofton »

whoisjuan wrote: post #59
hardwaresofton wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those! The real answer is Nativescript -- https://nativescript.org It doesn't get the buzz, and the ecosystem is somewhat old (it's surprisingly common to run into a repo that hasn't been touched in a year) but it's the superior platform to React Native and you get none of the capriciousness of the React ecosystem (if anything the Nativescript community might need a jolt). Nativescript is incredibly productiv…

I believe what you say about NativeScript but there’s not enough momentum in that solution. Learning NativeScript will give you access to a way smaller pool of projects or companies you can work for. I think most developers would prioritize employability + traction/community/documention. There’s not even a comparison there. React Native is the superior solution.

Yeah -- I do agree with you, React Native is going to see the majority of the love.

I would like to point out that NativeScript works -- people mostly don't make buzz about it but it's out there powering apps that are delivering value, I've used it myself for a client and it was fantastic.

React Native is the superior solution only if you prioritize employability/traction/community (I disagree on documentation, NativeScript's documentation is excellent), but if you need to get an application out but are turned off by the React crazy-land and bad performance of React in a mobile context, give NativeScript a try, it's the better platform in a technical sense -- it has things React Native doesn't.

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