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Deco Software – React Native IDE

464 points by uptown 11y ago

paste0x78 11y ago
The beta signup form (#download) is broken in FF. The lower text is cut off. OSX: 10.10.5 FF: 43.0.4
- daverecycles 11y ago
  Please send me an email at dchen@decosoftware.com and I'll look into it. We're having trouble reproducing the issue in Firefox. Thanks!
  - daverecycles 11y ago
    We figured it out and it should work on Firefox now. Thanks for reporting the issue! :)
    - paste0x78 11y ago
      Yep I can confirm that its working. No problem :)
AngeloAnolin 11y ago
Are beta testing only focused on select group of users? Signed up for beta and told there is a waiting line for it.
- daverecycles 11y ago
  We are adding users to the beta in batches as quickly as the team can support. We're working very closely with our beta group.
GantMan 11y ago
Things I have to say: * Background noise in your video is annoying. * Why are you showing your face? I'd rather see your code bigger. * Using require instead of module imports shows me that this product is going to have trouble keeping pace with FB, Babel, ECMA speeds. * I'm not in love with adding another IDE * hello http://getqwikly.com/ http://getqwikly.com/ all over again Sorry, but I'm not betting on this horse.
- pbreit 11y ago
  Not the best feedback but not sure it's downvote-worthy
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- s986s 11y ago
  This product may die, however I believe competition and the fire to get what you want is more valuable than king making through bad reviews (whether intentional or unintentional). Tbh, Im not going to look at the product because Im more interested in terminal editors at the moment. But criticism should be used to enhamce a product, not degrade the blood sweat and tears that went into it
  - GantMan 11y ago
    I applaud effort. I just feel there's some glaring gaps that make alarms go off. I'm sharing those. I know this looks fantastic, but that's when I start checking for a venire. And when I do, those smells popped up.
- rpedela 11y ago
  > Using require instead of module imports shows me that this product is going to have trouble keeping pace with FB, Babel, ECMA speeds. What does that mean?
  - GantMan 11y ago
    Facebook releases so fast. So when something is brand new and it's already not using the latest, I feel afraid. The example project doesn't use the import syntax, it's using require, and feels like it's coming from ECMA5 in a brand new video. I just worry, can they keep up? Facebook releases breaking changes often so it's a valid concern.
    - 11y ago
petrbela 11y ago
Guys, this is amazing! I've been looking for something like this for a while and almost ended up building it myself. What about pricing? Will the editor be free with premium paid services like push to deploy?
- daverecycles 11y ago
  The IDE will always be free for developers. We may add premium services in the future.
leesalminen 11y ago
I'm very excited to try this out. We've built one (very simple) React Native application so far and felt like the build chain could use some improvements. Do you plan on supporting imports instead of require?
- daverecycles 11y ago
  Absolutely! Everyone has their own preferred style for the new ES6 syntax, and we want to support it all.
- niftylettuce 11y ago
  What do you need differently about the build chain? It's so damn simple. Just use code push if you wanted to, then you only have to build & release & submit to app store once. https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/ https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/
cbrevik 11y ago
What exactly constitutes the Deco package registry? Will I need to submit my React Native libraries to a new registry? Or are you working with something like http://js.coach http://js.coach (formerly react.parts)?
- daverecycles 11y ago
  For the beta, we currently have our own registry, but we are looking into ways to integrate with others.
  - cbrevik 11y ago
    Okay! And presumably for the code scaffolding you will eventually let library authors customize that themselves?
    - daverecycles 11y ago
      Yep, that's right.
  - cvburgess 11y ago
    Is there a reason you aren't using NPM - I haven't done much react native development, is NPM not the go-to registry?
  - iLoch 11y ago
    There are plenty of front ends for NPM so hopefully you guys can figure out something for this!
vhiremath4 11y ago
This is incredible.
joeblau 11y ago
This looks pretty awesome. I really like the import package feature with the scaffolding. That looks like it saves a ton of time on whatever you're building.
cridenour 11y ago
My wife is a designer who has been getting into react-native with me. She would absolutely love this UI. Looking forward to trying it!
petrbela 11y ago
The left sidebar with Actions, Constants etc suggests use of some specific Flux library. Which one is that? Could others be used, too?
gorkemyurt 11y ago
This is great! Helps a ton for someone new to react native, lowers the already low barrier to entry. Integration with microsoft code push (https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-code-push https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-code-push) could be cool.
- lostintangent 11y ago
  We (the CodePush team) would love to discuss what that kind of integration might look like :)
rco8786 11y ago
Wow this is pretty impressive. Good job OP
idle_zealot 11y ago
I couldn't find anything about supported platforms on the site. Will this target Linux, or just OSX?
- daverecycles 11y ago
  We built Deco to be cross platform so we will be able to support Linux in the future. Currently OS X only.
skrowl 11y ago
The screenshots seem to indicate full Apple walled garden. Will this work on Windows?
- daverecycles 11y ago
  Currently OS X only, but we built it to be cross platform so keep an eye out for Windows version.
  - mamcx 11y ago
    What?, Wait... React Native have windows support? or is comming? And linux?
marknutter 11y ago
I apologize that this comment is slightly off topic but does it worry anybody else that people are putting so many of their eggs in the React basket? Considering how fickle the world of front-end libraries can be..
epberry 11y ago
So I just started developing a react native Android app and a react desktop app in electron and it's actually been a very rewarding experience so far. Some thoughts I have on this: 1. I'd be interested to see the Android emulator and live reload in Deco. I'm using Genymotion and the live reload seems to work about half the time (as in I usually have to save the file twice to see my changes). It also sometimes can't connect to Chrome devtools. At some point I'll dive into webpack, genymotion, watchman, and devtools to see if I can fix these things but it'd be nice to have everything work smoothly out of the box. 2. Speaking of devtools, devtools! I could imagine some really nice UI that wraps devtools directly into Deco but I didn't see that in the video (admittedly I skipped around a little). 3. I love the built in styling bar. Right now styling for me involves having a color palette tab, a CSS reference, and an HTML/React native UI components reference tab open. 4. I have one more problem that could probably be solved with a 10 minute investment on my part: react with electron and react native require different nodejs versions. React native needs at least v4.0 and I believe electron only works with 0.12.9 and below. Currently I switch between them using "n". I suppose this problem is unique to my situation but this is also the kind of thing an IDE could handle with project settings. Well this kind of devolved into me listing my pain points with React but I'm excited to try this editor and I just signed up for the waitlist! EDIT: clarification on point #4
- saidajigumi 11y ago
  To point #4, if your toplevel react+electron vs. react native projects are in distinct working directories, then you can use tools like ndenv[1] to manage node/npm versions using a .node-version file at the root of each project directory, as well as a configurable 'global' default setting. ndenv is great for this, since it uses PATH to do its work, and is therefore far more widely compatible with tooling than nvm. (nvm unfortunately requires executing within a bash w/ a mess of shell functions injected into it.) [1] https://github.com/riywo/ndenv https://github.com/riywo/ndenv
niftylettuce 11y ago
As a HEAVILY involved React Native developer, I am strongly suggesting you to NOT use Deco Software. It's pointless. Get Vim or Atom editor if you want to build a React Native app. There are CLI tools anyways to make your life easier. Your hardest battle will be you needing to afford a new computer to be able to run both the iOS simulator and Android simulator (or Genymotion) all at the same time. HMR reloading is already in RN v0.18+ I believe. I'm on 0.20 and it's AWESOME. We even have pull to refresh in now. The RN docs are FINE. Don't use this IDE. Again, don't use it!!! You're better off learning on your own with GitHub. The environment changes so much, because its so new, and things break all the time, that you'll be left in the dust because of this IDE. Just look at my GitHub activity feed to see all the issues that spring up, not to mention all the ones I don't bother documenting because I want to keep moving so fast.
- lukasm 11y ago
  >It's pointless No, it's not. Prototyping.
  - niftylettuce 11y ago
    Here's how you prototype: npm install -g react-native react-native init myproject cd myproject # open xcode simulator or android emulator # make changes to index.ios.js and read the damn docs # otherwise you end up dragging slides and dragging drop # having no idea what actually goes on behind the scenes # when if you learned what went on behind the scenes # you could code so so much faster and have so much more control
    - gorkemyurt 11y ago
      so i need to learn IOS and Android development to learn what's going on behind the scenes as well? Ideally right? But that's definitely not a prerequisite of building RN apps. Abstractions are great if its done well..
      - niftylettuce 11y ago
niftylettuce 11y ago
This thing is a joke. Just learn to code dude.
- jorgecurio 11y ago
  you've been shadowbanned.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 11y ago
  We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 and marked it off-topic.
niftylettuce 11y ago
Yet another package registry? There are tons of awesome packages for RN on GitHub and on NPM. Just use Google, GitHub, and get involved.
- dang 11y ago
  We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075322 and marked it off-topic.
niftylettuce 11y ago
Haha not really, it's bloated. You end up wasting time dragging a slider when you could just put in a number and enable HMR hot module reloading which is BUILT INTO REACT NATIVE. Lol.
- dang 11y ago
  You've inundated this thread with uncivil and dismissive comments. I'm sure you do know a lot about this space, but the way you've chosen to express it here is not at all ok. People go on tilt sometimes, so it's not the end of the world, but we've banned your account for now. If you don't want it to stay banned, email hn@ycombinator.com. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075389 and marked it off-topic.
niftylettuce 11y ago
You guys are fools to use something like this. Just read the damn docs. This is like selling candy to kids, when the candy is actually bad for you.
- loceng 11y ago
  Care to expand your thoughts?
  - niftylettuce 11y ago
    I tried to below, but I continously get downvoted by friends of the OP here. This thing is a joke, the time you spend reading about it and trying to get it installed/setup you could have already read the docs for RN, installed the ACTUAL React Native CLI tools that Facebook THEMSELVES! This is for people that are lazy, don't actualy build a product that gets anywhere, or prototype something that is actually junk and needs rewritten because they had no idea what they were doing, because they didn't read the docs that the creators of RN put SO much effort into maintaining (WITH EXAMPLES!). https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started...
    - ascorbic 11y ago
      I've no idea who the OP is and I've downvoted you. Your comments are rude and inflammatory. I'd imagine most of the other downvotes are from people who feel the same, rather than friends of the OP.
- maaaats 11y ago
  Why the hate? I see 8 negative comments from you in this thread. Edit: 13 by the time I finished writing this post.
  - niftylettuce 11y ago
    There are a lot of fanboy lurkers that downvote me because they are friends of the OP on here. That's why. The hate is because I am so frustrated with all the scrubs on here that praise this thing when they could just use the amazing tools that Facebook and the open source crowd made to do this themselves, actually learning to code and think. Instead of dragging sliders and stuff. There is built in LiveReloading into React Native now even. This is a useless layer for noobs is the message I am trying to get across, that will leave you with an app that needs rewritten from scratch.
niftylettuce 11y ago
Downvote me when I have a TON of background knowledge here, look at my damn GitHub.
- jacalata 11y ago
  Nobody is going to investigate the background of a drive-by jerk
  - michaelwww 11y ago
    I did look at his repo and it's respectable. Putting aside the personality issues the way we do with Terry Davis (TempleOS) I'd like to hear his complaints about this.
    - wnevets 11y ago
      It looks like he's having a mental break down.
      - michaelwww 11y ago
        Bad day I guess...
- dang 11y ago
  We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 and marked it off-topic.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
JamesLefrere 11y ago
This is one of the most useful-looking things I've seen on HN for some time, going by the video. It's a step closer to being able to live art-direct (as it were) sitting with a developer.
niftylettuce 11y ago
OR you could just install react native CLI tools, then use the BUILT IN hot module reloading (which is basically like LiveReload for web editing), and just do it yourself without this bloated piece of thing. Look how beautiful these docs are: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started... Now would you rather rely on something that one person made? Or would you rely on a huge group of amazing folks, which would GLADLY help you with your project, such as the folks from Discord channel or ExponentJS on Slack. http://slack.exponentjs.com/ http://slack.exponentjs.com/
- andreashansen 11y ago
  "Bashing on what people make is my favorite activity"
- seivan 11y ago
  Look, you're clearly passionate about React-Native, but surely there has to be a better way to channel it than this? How about an article explaining why it's better not to rely on on something like this, and why your way is better. Complete with samples to git clone. Then you can present it with your own thread. I am sure if you think about it, you'll realise it's a better approach. I mean you don't need to trash someones project like a total klabnik. It's not a good way to live, trust me.
- dang 11y ago
  We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075830 and marked it off-topic.
redsummer 11y ago
I'm disappointed they still kept the code element in. Everybody knows that things like control flow, variable types, functions etc can easily be represented visually. There is no need for code. But programmers have the esoteric textual knowledge, so they guard it and don't want to give it up. It's like the early church and academia keeping everything in Latin.
jorgecurio 11y ago
So the commoditization of mobile development begins...
- iampims 11y ago
  isn't it what technology is about? Commoditizing what was exclusive before. I'm personally glad to see tools simplyfying building a mobile app. The end goal rarely being producing the app, and more along the lines of producing value through the app. I hope it has as big of an impact as what WP did for custom CMS…
googletron 11y ago
we have been building a few react native apps at gyrosco.pe/apps we have been loving it. Interested to see if we could add this to our flow easily.
mrspeaker 11y ago
Very nifty! One question I have is that many React Native components that expose native functionality tend to have an extra step in the install process that looks like this: https://github.com/ProjectSeptemberInc/gl-react-native/raw/master/docs/install-steps.png https://github.com/ProjectSeptemberInc/gl-react-native/raw/m... - where you have to drag in and link the library in xcode. Are these types of components handled automagically too?
- daverecycles 11y ago
  Yes, we will be applying our automagic to this in the near future. :)
- armandososa 11y ago
  I recently worked on a RN project, after months of not touching it, and found out that there's a new thing called rnpm (https://github.com/rnpm/rnpm https://github.com/rnpm/rnpm) that solves this issue.
  - amk_ 11y ago
    RNPM is pretty good, but it doesn't work with some libraries that require slightly unique initialization steps or paths. I imagine this will eventually lead to some kind of postinstall hook in the module packages, which will be picked up by RNPM.
whatever_dude 11y ago
Any info on platforms supported (Mac, Windows, Linux)? I know React Native's toolset is mostly built for OSX with some native tool dependencies (e.g. Homebrew) and am afraid this will be repeated here.
- daverecycles 11y ago
  Though the current beta builds are for OS X, we built Deco with Windows and Linux in mind. So keep an eye out for those!
  - cprayingmantis 11y ago
    Are you sure there's an app to download? No offense but this seems like some shady promotion to just build an email list. Not one person here has said they've used the application or that they've got an invite.
- kriro 11y ago
  Thanks for asking this question. I couldn't find it anywhere on the site. Should probably be added as a separate entry on top ("Platforms" or something).
grav 11y ago
Looks nice. Here's hoping you'll do support for ClojureScript and Reagent. Or open source it and let me do it :-)
api 11y ago
You should add support for desktop too, like: https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop
- mwcampbell 11y ago
  Why not just use browser-based React inside a wrapper like Electron to build desktop apps? Is performance much better when using a desktop implementation of React Native?
  - api 11y ago
    That's not native, and is much bulkier and slower.
frozenport 11y ago
Android is over 70% of the market.
- daverecycles 11y ago
  We 100% plan to support Android.
- iLoch 11y ago
  Pretty easy when pretty much anything with any version of Android OS on it constitutes as "Android". For comparison, as of February 8th, 94% of all iOS devices are on iOS 8 or later, with 82% of those on iOS 9.
  - frozenport 11y ago
    Since Android 2.3, I haven't had much trouble sharing code across versions.
    - iLoch 11y ago
      Performance is the major problem. Getting the code to run isn't really an issue anymore.
      - frozenport 11y ago
        Interesting, for fun, can you share a story where changing Android versions resulted in a performance regression? My problems were limited to bugs in the OGL Java wrapper in Android 2.x.
        iLoch 11y ago
        I cannot. However the performance of the apps on my colleagues' phones serves as enecdotal evidence IMO.
- imaginenore 11y ago
  But Apple is over 60% of the market, which a more important metric for most developers. https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/2015-q1-market-index-charts_barchart.png https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/2015-q1... (I'm an Android guy myself, just trying to be realistic)
ioab 11y ago
fascinating video. love the IDE and the great convenient it offers.
deleted 11y ago
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deleted 11y ago
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sebbean 11y ago
can i use it?
iLoch 11y ago
This is interesting, definitely. One thing people should be aware of if they're new to the React Native environment is that this technology comes built in. It is a big reason why React Native is such a huge success so far. You don't need an IDE and switching to one instead of using your own tools seems like a pretty big negative to me. Tools such as rnpm allow for automated installation of new extensions (all of which are available on npm). Extension installation is as simple as: rnpm install react-native-video Deployment is now as simple as: react-native run-android react-native run-ios No XCode, no Android Studio, etc. and you get live reloading, Chrome debugging, etc. To me this is an ideal workflow, but others may disagree. Some may choose to build IDEs such as this on top of the existing architecture, that's cool too. I just want people who are starting out to be aware that there isn't much new here in terms of work flow efficiency.
- narrowrail 11y ago
  >It is a big reason why React Native is such a huge success so far. You don't need an IDE... Sorry if this a stupid question, but is this true if one is also targeting electron for the 'big 3' desktops for the HN crowd (rather than just mobile OSs)? Edit: Clarifications made.
  - madeofpalk 11y ago
    React Native is a platform for building _native_ iOS and Android apps (with no DOM (HTML or CSS)). Electron is about web apps for the desktop. Different things.
- daverecycles 11y ago
  Yes, for sure, a lot of the awesomeness is built into React Native. That's why we love it. Some developers will prefer an IDE, some will prefer the workflow you mentioned, and some will make their own. :)
esaym 11y ago
Looks good, definitely going to try it out.
dheera 11y ago
Here's hoping for a Linux version ...
al_chemist 11y ago
Closed beta and a lot of marketing. Nothing to see here.
reustle 11y ago
This looks really interesting and I'd love to try it, but these "refer your friend to jump ahead in line" tactics are pretty annoying. Stop pushing people to share it before they've even tried it, and let them share it after they actually enjoy using it.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- nchiring 11y ago
  I agree. I can't preach something that I haven't experienced yet !
- alrex021 11y ago
  We've got so many beta requests, we can't process them fast enough. So, just refer as many people as you can, and we'll bump you up somewhere in the "waiting list". Ingenious. ;-)
- splintercell 11y ago
  Exactly, why would I refer my friend to a product I haven't even tried yet? That's not how referral works at all, that's how spamming works.
- cprayingmantis 11y ago
  And by the time they email me an say that I can download I'll have forgotten what this project was and what all the hype was about making me less likely to use it and even less likely to spread the news.
lucidrains 11y ago
Released an app with react native recently and had an extremely pleasant experience throughout! Two thumbs way way up!
rafael-rinaldi 11y ago
This looks way better than things like Framer. Not only the code is more flexible (not a DSL nor their own API) but it's actually a React component that you can use anywhere. The IDE looks rad too.
phantom_package 11y ago
This looks like a really cool piece of software, but I think a lot of it's best features should be unbundled or made available in the IDE you already use. Namely: * Simple package search + install without opening a web browser * React-native hot-reloading * Scaffolding of added components, with required props filled in I really don't want to use a different IDE, and lose everything I've got in my current IDE - I use webstorm, so this would be Live Templates, key bindings, etc. That said, I'm really excited to see people building software that makes building react-native apps easier. It's not that it's too difficult right now - rather, it's awesome that the development workflow is so hackable, and that the react-native (and react) ecosystems seem to be evolving so rapidly, and are so willing to try out new ideas. Anyways, nice work Deco Software, keep it up :-)
ranyefet 11y ago
Looks awesome! We just released our React Native iOS app ( https://yes.no https://yes.no ) and I will definitely try it out! Good luck!

464 points by uptown 11y ago

paste0x78 11y ago

The beta signup form (#download) is broken in FF. The lower text is cut off. OSX: 10.10.5 FF: 43.0.4

daverecycles 11y ago
Please send me an email at dchen@decosoftware.com and I'll look into it. We're having trouble reproducing the issue in Firefox. Thanks!
- daverecycles 11y ago
  We figured it out and it should work on Firefox now. Thanks for reporting the issue! :)
  - paste0x78 11y ago
    Yep I can confirm that its working. No problem :)

AngeloAnolin 11y ago

Are beta testing only focused on select group of users? Signed up for beta and told there is a waiting line for it.

daverecycles 11y ago
We are adding users to the beta in batches as quickly as the team can support. We're working very closely with our beta group.

GantMan 11y ago

Things I have to say: * Background noise in your video is annoying. * Why are you showing your face? I'd rather see your code bigger. * Using require instead of module imports shows me that this product is going to have trouble keeping pace with FB, Babel, ECMA speeds. * I'm not in love with adding another IDE * hello http://getqwikly.com/ http://getqwikly.com/ all over again Sorry, but I'm not betting on this horse.

pbreit 11y ago
Not the best feedback but not sure it's downvote-worthy
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
s986s 11y ago
This product may die, however I believe competition and the fire to get what you want is more valuable than king making through bad reviews (whether intentional or unintentional). Tbh, Im not going to look at the product because Im more interested in terminal editors at the moment. But criticism should be used to enhamce a product, not degrade the blood sweat and tears that went into it
- GantMan 11y ago
  I applaud effort. I just feel there's some glaring gaps that make alarms go off. I'm sharing those. I know this looks fantastic, but that's when I start checking for a venire. And when I do, those smells popped up.
rpedela 11y ago
> Using require instead of module imports shows me that this product is going to have trouble keeping pace with FB, Babel, ECMA speeds. What does that mean?
- GantMan 11y ago
  Facebook releases so fast. So when something is brand new and it's already not using the latest, I feel afraid. The example project doesn't use the import syntax, it's using require, and feels like it's coming from ECMA5 in a brand new video. I just worry, can they keep up? Facebook releases breaking changes often so it's a valid concern.
  - 11y ago

petrbela 11y ago

Guys, this is amazing! I've been looking for something like this for a while and almost ended up building it myself. What about pricing? Will the editor be free with premium paid services like push to deploy?

daverecycles 11y ago
The IDE will always be free for developers. We may add premium services in the future.

leesalminen 11y ago

I'm very excited to try this out. We've built one (very simple) React Native application so far and felt like the build chain could use some improvements. Do you plan on supporting imports instead of require?

daverecycles 11y ago
Absolutely! Everyone has their own preferred style for the new ES6 syntax, and we want to support it all.
niftylettuce 11y ago
What do you need differently about the build chain? It's so damn simple. Just use code push if you wanted to, then you only have to build & release & submit to app store once. https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/ https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/

cbrevik 11y ago

What exactly constitutes the Deco package registry? Will I need to submit my React Native libraries to a new registry? Or are you working with something like http://js.coach http://js.coach (formerly react.parts)?

daverecycles 11y ago
For the beta, we currently have our own registry, but we are looking into ways to integrate with others.
- cbrevik 11y ago
  Okay! And presumably for the code scaffolding you will eventually let library authors customize that themselves?
  - daverecycles 11y ago
    Yep, that's right.
- cvburgess 11y ago
  Is there a reason you aren't using NPM - I haven't done much react native development, is NPM not the go-to registry?
- iLoch 11y ago
  There are plenty of front ends for NPM so hopefully you guys can figure out something for this!

vhiremath4 11y ago

This is incredible.

joeblau 11y ago

This looks pretty awesome. I really like the import package feature with the scaffolding. That looks like it saves a ton of time on whatever you're building.

cridenour 11y ago

My wife is a designer who has been getting into react-native with me. She would absolutely love this UI. Looking forward to trying it!

petrbela 11y ago

The left sidebar with Actions, Constants etc suggests use of some specific Flux library. Which one is that? Could others be used, too?

gorkemyurt 11y ago

This is great! Helps a ton for someone new to react native, lowers the already low barrier to entry. Integration with microsoft code push (https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-code-push https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-code-push) could be cool.

lostintangent 11y ago
We (the CodePush team) would love to discuss what that kind of integration might look like :)

rco8786 11y ago

Wow this is pretty impressive. Good job OP

idle_zealot 11y ago

I couldn't find anything about supported platforms on the site. Will this target Linux, or just OSX?

daverecycles 11y ago
We built Deco to be cross platform so we will be able to support Linux in the future. Currently OS X only.

skrowl 11y ago

The screenshots seem to indicate full Apple walled garden. Will this work on Windows?

daverecycles 11y ago
Currently OS X only, but we built it to be cross platform so keep an eye out for Windows version.
- mamcx 11y ago
  What?, Wait... React Native have windows support? or is comming? And linux?

marknutter 11y ago

I apologize that this comment is slightly off topic but does it worry anybody else that people are putting so many of their eggs in the React basket? Considering how fickle the world of front-end libraries can be..

epberry 11y ago

So I just started developing a react native Android app and a react desktop app in electron and it's actually been a very rewarding experience so far. Some thoughts I have on this: 1. I'd be interested to see the Android emulator and live reload in Deco. I'm using Genymotion and the live reload seems to work about half the time (as in I usually have to save the file twice to see my changes). It also sometimes can't connect to Chrome devtools. At some point I'll dive into webpack, genymotion, watchman, and devtools to see if I can fix these things but it'd be nice to have everything work smoothly out of the box. 2. Speaking of devtools, devtools! I could imagine some really nice UI that wraps devtools directly into Deco but I didn't see that in the video (admittedly I skipped around a little). 3. I love the built in styling bar. Right now styling for me involves having a color palette tab, a CSS reference, and an HTML/React native UI components reference tab open. 4. I have one more problem that could probably be solved with a 10 minute investment on my part: react with electron and react native require different nodejs versions. React native needs at least v4.0 and I believe electron only works with 0.12.9 and below. Currently I switch between them using "n". I suppose this problem is unique to my situation but this is also the kind of thing an IDE could handle with project settings. Well this kind of devolved into me listing my pain points with React but I'm excited to try this editor and I just signed up for the waitlist! EDIT: clarification on point #4

saidajigumi 11y ago
To point #4, if your toplevel react+electron vs. react native projects are in distinct working directories, then you can use tools like ndenv[1] to manage node/npm versions using a .node-version file at the root of each project directory, as well as a configurable 'global' default setting. ndenv is great for this, since it uses PATH to do its work, and is therefore far more widely compatible with tooling than nvm. (nvm unfortunately requires executing within a bash w/ a mess of shell functions injected into it.) [1] https://github.com/riywo/ndenv https://github.com/riywo/ndenv

niftylettuce 11y ago

As a HEAVILY involved React Native developer, I am strongly suggesting you to NOT use Deco Software. It's pointless. Get Vim or Atom editor if you want to build a React Native app. There are CLI tools anyways to make your life easier. Your hardest battle will be you needing to afford a new computer to be able to run both the iOS simulator and Android simulator (or Genymotion) all at the same time. HMR reloading is already in RN v0.18+ I believe. I'm on 0.20 and it's AWESOME. We even have pull to refresh in now. The RN docs are FINE. Don't use this IDE. Again, don't use it!!! You're better off learning on your own with GitHub. The environment changes so much, because its so new, and things break all the time, that you'll be left in the dust because of this IDE. Just look at my GitHub activity feed to see all the issues that spring up, not to mention all the ones I don't bother documenting because I want to keep moving so fast.

lukasm 11y ago
>It's pointless No, it's not. Prototyping.
- niftylettuce 11y ago
  Here's how you prototype: npm install -g react-native react-native init myproject cd myproject # open xcode simulator or android emulator # make changes to index.ios.js and read the damn docs # otherwise you end up dragging slides and dragging drop # having no idea what actually goes on behind the scenes # when if you learned what went on behind the scenes # you could code so so much faster and have so much more control
  - gorkemyurt 11y ago
    so i need to learn IOS and Android development to learn what's going on behind the scenes as well? Ideally right? But that's definitely not a prerequisite of building RN apps. Abstractions are great if its done well..
    - niftylettuce 11y ago

niftylettuce 11y ago

This thing is a joke. Just learn to code dude.

jorgecurio 11y ago
you've been shadowbanned.
deleted 11y ago
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dang 11y ago
We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 and marked it off-topic.

niftylettuce 11y ago

Yet another package registry? There are tons of awesome packages for RN on GitHub and on NPM. Just use Google, GitHub, and get involved.

dang 11y ago
We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075322 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075322 and marked it off-topic.

niftylettuce 11y ago

Haha not really, it's bloated. You end up wasting time dragging a slider when you could just put in a number and enable HMR hot module reloading which is BUILT INTO REACT NATIVE. Lol.

dang 11y ago
You've inundated this thread with uncivil and dismissive comments. I'm sure you do know a lot about this space, but the way you've chosen to express it here is not at all ok. People go on tilt sometimes, so it's not the end of the world, but we've banned your account for now. If you don't want it to stay banned, email hn@ycombinator.com. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075389 and marked it off-topic.

niftylettuce 11y ago

You guys are fools to use something like this. Just read the damn docs. This is like selling candy to kids, when the candy is actually bad for you.

loceng 11y ago
Care to expand your thoughts?
- niftylettuce 11y ago
  I tried to below, but I continously get downvoted by friends of the OP here. This thing is a joke, the time you spend reading about it and trying to get it installed/setup you could have already read the docs for RN, installed the ACTUAL React Native CLI tools that Facebook THEMSELVES! This is for people that are lazy, don't actualy build a product that gets anywhere, or prototype something that is actually junk and needs rewritten because they had no idea what they were doing, because they didn't read the docs that the creators of RN put SO much effort into maintaining (WITH EXAMPLES!). https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started...
  - ascorbic 11y ago
    I've no idea who the OP is and I've downvoted you. Your comments are rude and inflammatory. I'd imagine most of the other downvotes are from people who feel the same, rather than friends of the OP.
maaaats 11y ago
Why the hate? I see 8 negative comments from you in this thread. Edit: 13 by the time I finished writing this post.
- niftylettuce 11y ago
  There are a lot of fanboy lurkers that downvote me because they are friends of the OP on here. That's why. The hate is because I am so frustrated with all the scrubs on here that praise this thing when they could just use the amazing tools that Facebook and the open source crowd made to do this themselves, actually learning to code and think. Instead of dragging sliders and stuff. There is built in LiveReloading into React Native now even. This is a useless layer for noobs is the message I am trying to get across, that will leave you with an app that needs rewritten from scratch.

niftylettuce 11y ago

Downvote me when I have a TON of background knowledge here, look at my damn GitHub.

jacalata 11y ago
Nobody is going to investigate the background of a drive-by jerk
- michaelwww 11y ago
  I did look at his repo and it's respectable. Putting aside the personality issues the way we do with Terry Davis (TempleOS) I'd like to hear his complaints about this.
  - wnevets 11y ago
    It looks like he's having a mental break down.
    - michaelwww 11y ago
      Bad day I guess...
dang 11y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075245 and marked it off-topic.

deleted 11y ago

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JamesLefrere 11y ago

This is one of the most useful-looking things I've seen on HN for some time, going by the video. It's a step closer to being able to live art-direct (as it were) sitting with a developer.

niftylettuce 11y ago

OR you could just install react native CLI tools, then use the BUILT IN hot module reloading (which is basically like LiveReload for web editing), and just do it yourself without this bloated piece of thing. Look how beautiful these docs are: https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html https://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started... Now would you rather rely on something that one person made? Or would you rely on a huge group of amazing folks, which would GLADLY help you with your project, such as the folks from Discord channel or ExponentJS on Slack. http://slack.exponentjs.com/ http://slack.exponentjs.com/

andreashansen 11y ago
"Bashing on what people make is my favorite activity"
seivan 11y ago
Look, you're clearly passionate about React-Native, but surely there has to be a better way to channel it than this? How about an article explaining why it's better not to rely on on something like this, and why your way is better. Complete with samples to git clone. Then you can present it with your own thread. I am sure if you think about it, you'll realise it's a better approach. I mean you don't need to trash someones project like a total klabnik. It's not a good way to live, trust me.
dang 11y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11075830 and marked it off-topic.

redsummer 11y ago

I'm disappointed they still kept the code element in. Everybody knows that things like control flow, variable types, functions etc can easily be represented visually. There is no need for code. But programmers have the esoteric textual knowledge, so they guard it and don't want to give it up. It's like the early church and academia keeping everything in Latin.

jorgecurio 11y ago

So the commoditization of mobile development begins...

iampims 11y ago
isn't it what technology is about? Commoditizing what was exclusive before. I'm personally glad to see tools simplyfying building a mobile app. The end goal rarely being producing the app, and more along the lines of producing value through the app. I hope it has as big of an impact as what WP did for custom CMS…

googletron 11y ago

we have been building a few react native apps at gyrosco.pe/apps we have been loving it. Interested to see if we could add this to our flow easily.

mrspeaker 11y ago

Very nifty! One question I have is that many React Native components that expose native functionality tend to have an extra step in the install process that looks like this: https://github.com/ProjectSeptemberInc/gl-react-native/raw/master/docs/install-steps.png https://github.com/ProjectSeptemberInc/gl-react-native/raw/m... - where you have to drag in and link the library in xcode. Are these types of components handled automagically too?

daverecycles 11y ago
Yes, we will be applying our automagic to this in the near future. :)
armandososa 11y ago
I recently worked on a RN project, after months of not touching it, and found out that there's a new thing called rnpm (https://github.com/rnpm/rnpm https://github.com/rnpm/rnpm) that solves this issue.
- amk_ 11y ago
  RNPM is pretty good, but it doesn't work with some libraries that require slightly unique initialization steps or paths. I imagine this will eventually lead to some kind of postinstall hook in the module packages, which will be picked up by RNPM.

whatever_dude 11y ago

Any info on platforms supported (Mac, Windows, Linux)? I know React Native's toolset is mostly built for OSX with some native tool dependencies (e.g. Homebrew) and am afraid this will be repeated here.

daverecycles 11y ago
Though the current beta builds are for OS X, we built Deco with Windows and Linux in mind. So keep an eye out for those!
- cprayingmantis 11y ago
  Are you sure there's an app to download? No offense but this seems like some shady promotion to just build an email list. Not one person here has said they've used the application or that they've got an invite.
kriro 11y ago
Thanks for asking this question. I couldn't find it anywhere on the site. Should probably be added as a separate entry on top ("Platforms" or something).

grav 11y ago

Looks nice. Here's hoping you'll do support for ClojureScript and Reagent. Or open source it and let me do it :-)

api 11y ago

You should add support for desktop too, like: https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop

mwcampbell 11y ago
Why not just use browser-based React inside a wrapper like Electron to build desktop apps? Is performance much better when using a desktop implementation of React Native?
- api 11y ago
  That's not native, and is much bulkier and slower.

frozenport 11y ago

Android is over 70% of the market.

daverecycles 11y ago
We 100% plan to support Android.
iLoch 11y ago
Pretty easy when pretty much anything with any version of Android OS on it constitutes as "Android". For comparison, as of February 8th, 94% of all iOS devices are on iOS 8 or later, with 82% of those on iOS 9.
- frozenport 11y ago
  Since Android 2.3, I haven't had much trouble sharing code across versions.
  - iLoch 11y ago
    Performance is the major problem. Getting the code to run isn't really an issue anymore.
    - frozenport 11y ago
      Interesting, for fun, can you share a story where changing Android versions resulted in a performance regression? My problems were limited to bugs in the OGL Java wrapper in Android 2.x.
      - iLoch 11y ago
        I cannot. However the performance of the apps on my colleagues' phones serves as enecdotal evidence IMO.
imaginenore 11y ago
But Apple is over 60% of the market, which a more important metric for most developers. https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/2015-q1-market-index-charts_barchart.png https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/2015-q1... (I'm an Android guy myself, just trying to be realistic)

ioab 11y ago

fascinating video. love the IDE and the great convenient it offers.

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sebbean 11y ago

can i use it?

iLoch 11y ago

This is interesting, definitely. One thing people should be aware of if they're new to the React Native environment is that this technology comes built in. It is a big reason why React Native is such a huge success so far. You don't need an IDE and switching to one instead of using your own tools seems like a pretty big negative to me. Tools such as rnpm allow for automated installation of new extensions (all of which are available on npm). Extension installation is as simple as: rnpm install react-native-video Deployment is now as simple as: react-native run-android react-native run-ios No XCode, no Android Studio, etc. and you get live reloading, Chrome debugging, etc. To me this is an ideal workflow, but others may disagree. Some may choose to build IDEs such as this on top of the existing architecture, that's cool too. I just want people who are starting out to be aware that there isn't much new here in terms of work flow efficiency.

narrowrail 11y ago
>It is a big reason why React Native is such a huge success so far. You don't need an IDE... Sorry if this a stupid question, but is this true if one is also targeting electron for the 'big 3' desktops for the HN crowd (rather than just mobile OSs)? Edit: Clarifications made.
- madeofpalk 11y ago
  React Native is a platform for building _native_ iOS and Android apps (with no DOM (HTML or CSS)). Electron is about web apps for the desktop. Different things.
daverecycles 11y ago
Yes, for sure, a lot of the awesomeness is built into React Native. That's why we love it. Some developers will prefer an IDE, some will prefer the workflow you mentioned, and some will make their own. :)

esaym 11y ago

Looks good, definitely going to try it out.

dheera 11y ago

Here's hoping for a Linux version ...

al_chemist 11y ago

Closed beta and a lot of marketing. Nothing to see here.

reustle 11y ago

This looks really interesting and I'd love to try it, but these "refer your friend to jump ahead in line" tactics are pretty annoying. Stop pushing people to share it before they've even tried it, and let them share it after they actually enjoy using it.

deleted 11y ago
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nchiring 11y ago
I agree. I can't preach something that I haven't experienced yet !
alrex021 11y ago
We've got so many beta requests, we can't process them fast enough. So, just refer as many people as you can, and we'll bump you up somewhere in the "waiting list". Ingenious. ;-)
splintercell 11y ago
Exactly, why would I refer my friend to a product I haven't even tried yet? That's not how referral works at all, that's how spamming works.
cprayingmantis 11y ago
And by the time they email me an say that I can download I'll have forgotten what this project was and what all the hype was about making me less likely to use it and even less likely to spread the news.

lucidrains 11y ago

Released an app with react native recently and had an extremely pleasant experience throughout! Two thumbs way way up!

rafael-rinaldi 11y ago

This looks way better than things like Framer. Not only the code is more flexible (not a DSL nor their own API) but it's actually a React component that you can use anywhere. The IDE looks rad too.

phantom_package 11y ago

This looks like a really cool piece of software, but I think a lot of it's best features should be unbundled or made available in the IDE you already use. Namely: * Simple package search + install without opening a web browser * React-native hot-reloading * Scaffolding of added components, with required props filled in I really don't want to use a different IDE, and lose everything I've got in my current IDE - I use webstorm, so this would be Live Templates, key bindings, etc. That said, I'm really excited to see people building software that makes building react-native apps easier. It's not that it's too difficult right now - rather, it's awesome that the development workflow is so hackable, and that the react-native (and react) ecosystems seem to be evolving so rapidly, and are so willing to try out new ideas. Anyways, nice work Deco Software, keep it up :-)

ranyefet 11y ago

Looks awesome! We just released our React Native iOS app ( https://yes.no https://yes.no ) and I will definitely try it out! Good luck!