Introducing React Native [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#41

Post by aroman » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 5:57 AM UTC

bobajeff wrote: post #32

I wish they'd go into more detail on why they can't make an app like paper in the browser environment. They mentioned something about Web Workers being crippled and later on explained how their framework puts JavaScript in it's own thread by default. I'm also wondering why in their experience no one ever comes close to native widgets when imitating them in a Web apps.

i think his answer was that all the magic numbers and heuristics that make the physics and animations and whatnot feel perfectly native are black boxes. if you want to make a "native" iOS/Android experience on the mobile web, you literally need to guess about all of those things -- and it'll always feel a bit off. probably a corollary of the uncanny valley

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#42

Post by omard » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:03 AM UTC

evv wrote: post #17

slashnull wrote: post #8

Sorry, dumb question, don't feel like watching the video: What platforms are targetted? Out of, say, iOS, Android, Linux/X11 desktop, Windows desktop, WinRT, OSX?

This is Eric, from the React Native team. We're starting with iOS and Android, which will keep us busy for the foreseeable future. That said, we will open source soon, and we'd be happy to accept help targeting other platforms!

Nice! What about windows phones?

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#43

Post by uniclaude » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:03 AM UTC

That sounds amazing. It's been a while since I haven't been that excited about a framework. Native wrappers are so hard to create and maintain that it's promising to have a company like Facebook behind one.

I can't wait to have access to this repo to see source code and examples.

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#44

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:05 AM UTC

kenrose wrote: post #10

slashnull wrote: post #8

Sorry, dumb question, don't feel like watching the video: What platforms are targetted? Out of, say, iOS, Android, Linux/X11 desktop, Windows desktop, WinRT, OSX?

iOS and Android.

[deleted]

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#45

Post by je42 » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:09 AM UTC

bobajeff wrote: post #32

I wish they'd go into more detail on why they can't make an app like paper in the browser environment. They mentioned something about Web Workers being crippled and later on explained how their framework puts JavaScript in it's own thread by default. I'm also wondering why in their experience no one ever comes close to native widgets when imitating them in a Web apps.

Indeed. If I look at Slack which I believe is actually a wrapped HTML5 on iOS + Android it looks already very good.

But it doesn't have a lot of gestures+animations+images, so that might be the difference.

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#46

Post by je42 » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:12 AM UTC

sydcanem wrote: post #33

digvan wrote: post #25

It fails like many other framework tried to create native apps with JavaScript

Those mobile Javascript frameworks uses the DOM. React native won't.

Actually, some don't use DOM. http://openaphid.github.io/blog/2013/01/17/part-i-how-to-cho...

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#47

Post by nogridbag » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:14 AM UTC

_pmf_ wrote: post #39

That's it. I'm finally going to port GridBagLayout to Javascript.

The memories of GridBagLayout still haunt me to this day (see username).

This is a classic gridbag cartoon: http://madbean.com/anim/totallygridbag

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#48

Post by themgt » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:31 AM UTC

Well, my money is on this (concept if not implementation) being the future of client-side development. Absent horrific performance/robustness problems, which seem pretty unlikely from this team, this is sounding like the droids we were looking for, the holy grail ring to unite us all, web and native.

And did even Steve Yegge ever see this next big language coming?

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#49

Post by seanmcdirmid » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:36 AM UTC

jdub wrote: post #35

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Would you even need something like react on windows given that wpf/winrt already support dependency properties and data binding?

React, as the developers argue, is a step beyond data binding. It emphasises immutability and a single data flow, rather than the combinatorial interdependency of the data binding approach.

One way data binding is supported by WPF also, I mean, two-way data binding is the unusual odd man out. And of course, the one way data flow functions have to be immutable and you have to take a dependency whenever when you read a property imperatively.

What they've done with react native sounds a lot like how WPF works anyways (scene graph updated in UI thread, rendering thread then renders scene graph). Now, there is nothing wrong with that, I think its all good. But I don't think there is a good reason to use React in Windows project since most of the problems it solves have already been solved.

Re: Introducing React Native [video]

#50

Post by nemothekid » Thu, Jan 29, 2015, 6:37 AM UTC

leeoniya wrote: post #36

bobajeff wrote: post #32

I wish they'd go into more detail on why they can't make an app like paper in the browser environment. They mentioned something about Web Workers being crippled and later on explained how their framework puts JavaScript in it's own thread by default. I'm also wondering why in their experience no one ever comes close to native widgets when imitating them in a Web apps.

with gpu-accelerated css transitions, requestAnimationFrame, virtual dom and web workers, the experience can be damn close. he makes it seem like "no comparison", this is provably false at least for the apps he demoed. for games, native is still necessary. what react offers beyond performance though, is definitely awesome. imo, the talk comes off a bit like a sales pitch at a pep rally.

I don't know - but given Facebook's past with WebView on their flagship app I feel they would be best qualified to say whether or not those solutions once fully implemented are satisfactory.

It could be the case that the features you mentioned are suitable today for web applications targeting the latest iPhone on browsers on the latest standards, but not when React was first developed.