Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web • Hacker News Board

Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#1

Post by andsoitis » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 12:35 AM UTC

Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web
github.com

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#2

Post by purplecats » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 3:37 AM UTC

i used this for my startup years ago, nice to see its still going strong

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#3

Post by no_butterscotch » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 3:52 AM UTC

purplecats wrote: post #2

i used this for my startup years ago, nice to see its still going strong

Any major issues?

I'm considering RN right now. Wondering whether to start from scratch or not. People refer to issues "ejecting" from Expo but those issues are vague and go back years.

Any concerns or experiences on your end that make it a good or bad option?

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#4

Post by adamsaparudin » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:01 AM UTC

no_butterscotch wrote: post #3

purplecats wrote: post #2

i used this for my startup years ago, nice to see its still going strong

Any major issues? I'm considering RN right now. Wondering whether to start from scratch or not. People refer to issues "ejecting" from Expo but those issues are vague and go back years. Any concerns or experiences on your end that make it a good or bad option?

If it’s just simple app, I’m sure Expo is still good choice. Otherwise I will prefer use RN

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#5

Post by sideproject » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:03 AM UTC

Is there anything equivalent for Vue? I know there was VueNative and NativeScript and there is even Ionic in Vue, but haven't really seen any framework that is either dedicated to Vue or has a strong support for Vue.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#6

Post by asdev » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:08 AM UTC

works until you need to use a native library that hasn't been ported for Expo, then you need to eject. I would only consider Expo for POC/MVP

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#7

Post by andridk » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:11 AM UTC

asdev wrote: post #6

works until you need to use a native library that hasn't been ported for Expo, then you need to eject. I would only consider Expo for POC/MVP

Not true anymore. You can use their build service (EAS) to create app and dev client for custom libraries without ejecting

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#8

Post by throwanapple » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:17 AM UTC

no_butterscotch wrote: post #3

purplecats wrote: post #2

i used this for my startup years ago, nice to see its still going strong

Any major issues? I'm considering RN right now. Wondering whether to start from scratch or not. People refer to issues "ejecting" from Expo but those issues are vague and go back years. Any concerns or experiences on your end that make it a good or bad option?

They like to do a lot of breaking changes between versions that are very painful to upgrade to. But this also applies to RN and JS ecosystem to a lesser extent.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#9

Post by nwithan8 » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:31 AM UTC

That just sounds like React Native with extra steps.

Re: Expo – Open-source platform for making universal apps for Android, iOS, and web

#10

Post by jeppester » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 4:34 AM UTC

asdev wrote: post #6

works until you need to use a native library that hasn't been ported for Expo, then you need to eject. I would only consider Expo for POC/MVP

This was my main criticism as well, but not anymore.

With the "prebuild" workflow you can regenerate your iOS and Android projects anytime you need. And set up scripts for adding external libraries in the process.

It is more work to set up over just altering the native projects, but the result is rather nice.

I've never felt 100% confident that react native project folders wouldn't break for arbitrary reasons. Being able to so easily start over is very useful.