The developments that Facebook is working on with React Native are just so much more exciting than another riff on C++. For most "utility" apps, I just don't th

The developments that Facebook is working on with React Native are just so much more exciting than another riff on C++. For most "utility" apps, I just don't think performance is such an issue that the point of research should be these (comparably) incredibly low level concerns. When I see the bugs going on in iOS apps, it has to do with models that are broken for what modern programs looks like today: things like asynchronicity. Animation is still a mess to wrap your mind around when you have a series of asynchronous events (animations, loads, what have you) that are tied together, but can also be canceled half way through. This is why I can still break many apps by just tapping all over the place (or clicking all over the place: http://tolmasky.com/letmeshowyou/Yosemite/Safari%20Animation.mov http://tolmasky.com/letmeshowyou/Yosemite/Safari%20Animation... ). Combining the determinism of React style immediate mode drawing with JS async/await is truly exciting for app development. Now, of course the elephant in the room is that neither of these matter that much when most the apps being written are games that will continue using C++ or Unity (if you actually care about speed these are your best bet). Especially with the work Apple is doing with Metal that will improve these platforms as well.