6 ms·

React Native on the Universal Windows Platform

246 points by outside1234 11y ago

brentvatne 11y ago
Also see: https://ericroz.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/f8-app-on-windows-10-mobile/ https://ericroz.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/f8-app-on-windows-1... > Excluding all the work on core and third party module parity, and store preparation, there was certainly less than 1 week of 1 developers time dedicated to platform customization and style tweaks in JavaScript. This is huge! Fantastic work everyone.
TheAceOfHearts 11y ago
This is a huge game changer. We have OS X support with React Native Desktop [0], so that means only Linux support is missing! I've wondered why we haven't seen a React Native Qt, React Native Gtk+, or React Native Elementary yet. But I guess those communities just aren't very interested in what JS people are up to. [0] https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop
- thibauts 11y ago
  The react-native-desktop author is working on it [1]. [1] https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop/issues/59 https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop/issues/59
  - potomushto 11y ago
    Thanks, I'm working on it full-time. If you are an everyday Linux user (especially not Ubuntu) and willing to test and/or answer to some questions please reach me out on unknownliveid@hotmail.com.
- jnbiche 11y ago
  > This is a huge game changer. Agreed. React Native is turning into what a lot of us were hoping QT/QML would. But QT offers a very poor experience to both users and developers for mobile use, due to both license issues (making users download an additional binary scares most of them off) and to the uncanny valley caused by using non-native widgets. React Native has neither of these problems on mobile. QT still rules the desktop, but it looks like only React Native offers hope for a true cross-platform GUI framework. Who would have thought 2 years ago?
- justinmcp 11y ago
  We're working a React Native port for Ubuntu (via Qt/QML). It's still early days, but many things are working. Source is here; https://code.launchpad.net/reactnative-ubuntu https://code.launchpad.net/reactnative-ubuntu
outside1234 11y ago
I am on the team at Microsoft that helped bring UWP to React Native. If there are questions, feel free to AMA. PS. Many thanks to the Facebook team for building a great platform in React Native and their critical help in helping us bring Windows to the platform.
- louisphp 11y ago
  Currently, it's a fork. Do you have plans to merge it in the main react-native repo? When?
  - outside1234 11y ago
    We are working on Facebook on the best long term strategy for maintaining UWP support. Our fork is only to add the ReactWindows directory and to otherwise track master in the process.
- Aleman360 11y ago
  Why does this generate C# instead of C++?
  - the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
    Why not? Seems like a reasonable thing to do. Is there a specific reason it should be C++?
    - Aleman360 11y ago
      Runtime memory usage and startup perf is better for C++ XAML apps.
      - ctangent 11y ago
        UWP C# apps are AOT compiled, the startup hit isn't that bad nowadays.
  - outside1234 11y ago
BHSPitMonkey 11y ago
This was somewhat expected after Microsoft released a first-party React Native plugin for their Visual Studio Code IDE a couple weeks ago: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-react-native https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-react-native
radicalman 11y ago
Wish we had riotjs native cuz reactjs sucks like Java swing
mrspeaker 11y ago
Wow - great news! We were launching our relatively complex app iOS only, but had some downtime and decided to see how the Android implementation fared: it worked really well (much better than I expected) and hasn't taken much effort to have something that feels really nice. Now I'm excited to try this project out!
RussianCow 11y ago
For those interested, the GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native
- Ezhik 11y ago
  How many organizations does Microsoft have on GitHub, I wonder? Seems like every project they publish is under a different account.
  - WorldMaker 11y ago
    They built a meta-tracking site at http://microsoft.github.io/ http://microsoft.github.io/ and it has a list of Other GitHub orgs at the bottom of that page as well as the repository README. Currently missing ReactWindows, but it's just a PR away to fix: https://github.com/Microsoft/microsoft.github.io https://github.com/Microsoft/microsoft.github.io
jgnmello 11y ago
Only works with Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise?
- whatever_dude 11y ago
  It works on anything since it's just for platform support and unrelated to tooling. But on the tooling side, they also have a companion extension for (the free, multi-platform) Visual Studio Code. From the article: > In addition to this work on the core framework support, Microsoft is also providing open source tools and services to help developers create React Native apps. The React Native extension for Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/ https://code.visualstudio.com/) brings an intuitive, productive environment to author and debug React Native apps.
  - jgnmello 11y ago
    So, I can build the repo with community? Because I found this statement "Assuming you have Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise installed" at https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/tree/ReactWindows/ReactWindows https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/tree/ReactWindo...
    - jongalloway2 11y ago
      Fixed: https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/issues/345 https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/issues/345
  - shankun 11y ago
    In addition to the free extension for VS Code (which is free and open source, and available on Mac, Linux, and Windows), we have a free and open source service called CodePush (https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/ https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/) for instantly pushing React Native apps to devices.
daxfohl 11y ago
Wait, so will the "jsx" files be HTML or XAML? If written in JS, where does C# come in?
- Aleman360 11y ago
  https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/blob/ReactWindows/ReactWindows/Playground/index.windows.js https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/blob/ReactWindo... Looks like it evaluates the JS and creates XAML elements programmatically using C#.
plexchat 11y ago
I hate to be a naysayer because this is great work and all, but frankly, managing all these platforms is going to be a nightmare. In a traditional engine, the code for each platform is embedded at the lowest level of abstraction. That is the way it works for iOS and android at the moment, but adding new platform support via extensions will make the code harder to manage and reason about. I don't want a separate extension for OSX, Windows, and Linux. I want all the code about, say, filesystem handling to be in a single place (in neatly separated platform specific files). This applies to networking code, rendering, input, etc. I know at the bottom of the article there is hope of integrating it with the original project, but given that we are starting literally on the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm worried we will never reach this hypothetical nirvana. The original react native team needs to prioritize getting other platforms in the original codebase, and I may be mistaken, but I have not yet observed this, and so have some cause to worry.
hbcondo714 11y ago
Cordova, Xamarin and React Native...oh my! Which one are you all going to choose?
- RussianCow 11y ago
  Well, Corvoda and Xamarin are only for mobile apps. If React Native begins officially supporting desktop platforms, it'll be the only (popular) framework of its kind.
  - cornedor 11y ago
    Haxe + for example OpenFL has even more targets, but not as popular.
  - bossmojoman 11y ago
    Xamarin does OSX apps as well, Not sure about Linux
    - pritambaral 11y ago
      Xamarin is Monodevelop (plus some mobile and Mac stuff). Apparently monodevelop can be used to build apps for Linux using GTK#
  - WorldMaker 11y ago
    Cordova and Xamarin both give you desktop reach on Windows through the UWP. You may be using the UWP to target mobile first and may not think to test for desktop, but both give you that option to expand into desktop. You can somewhat easily rehost a Cordova app in Electron for desktop reach on Mac and Linux (and even Windows if you prefer Electron to the UWP for some reason). There already are Xamarin Framework bindings for the Mac and you shouldn't have too hard of a time to use existing Gtk# resources to target Linux. Now that Xamarin Forms is true open source maybe someone will have more incentive to build a good XAML binding and Xamarin Forms implementation for Gtk# (or some other Linux UI toolkit for that matter). tl;dr: Lots of options! Yay!
bryanrasmussen 11y ago
I have to expect that a framework like this will not work exactly as well as 'True Native' (to coin a phrase), and and as there are now a number of platforms it needs to work across that all functionality exposed by React Native will not work equally well across all platforms. Is there a resource that compares React Native's functionalities across the platforms ( performance characteristics, behaviors, appearance, and so forth?)

246 points by outside1234 11y ago

Also see: https://ericroz.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/f8-app-on-windows-10-mobile/ https://ericroz.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/f8-app-on-windows-1... > Excluding all the work on core and third party module parity, and store preparation, there was certainly less than 1 week of 1 developers time dedicated to platform customization and style tweaks in JavaScript. This is huge! Fantastic work everyone.

TheAceOfHearts 11y ago

This is a huge game changer. We have OS X support with React Native Desktop [0], so that means only Linux support is missing! I've wondered why we haven't seen a React Native Qt, React Native Gtk+, or React Native Elementary yet. But I guess those communities just aren't very interested in what JS people are up to. [0] https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop

thibauts 11y ago
The react-native-desktop author is working on it [1]. [1] https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop/issues/59 https://github.com/ptmt/react-native-desktop/issues/59
- potomushto 11y ago
  Thanks, I'm working on it full-time. If you are an everyday Linux user (especially not Ubuntu) and willing to test and/or answer to some questions please reach me out on unknownliveid@hotmail.com.
jnbiche 11y ago
> This is a huge game changer. Agreed. React Native is turning into what a lot of us were hoping QT/QML would. But QT offers a very poor experience to both users and developers for mobile use, due to both license issues (making users download an additional binary scares most of them off) and to the uncanny valley caused by using non-native widgets. React Native has neither of these problems on mobile. QT still rules the desktop, but it looks like only React Native offers hope for a true cross-platform GUI framework. Who would have thought 2 years ago?
justinmcp 11y ago
We're working a React Native port for Ubuntu (via Qt/QML). It's still early days, but many things are working. Source is here; https://code.launchpad.net/reactnative-ubuntu https://code.launchpad.net/reactnative-ubuntu

outside1234 11y ago

I am on the team at Microsoft that helped bring UWP to React Native. If there are questions, feel free to AMA. PS. Many thanks to the Facebook team for building a great platform in React Native and their critical help in helping us bring Windows to the platform.

louisphp 11y ago
Currently, it's a fork. Do you have plans to merge it in the main react-native repo? When?
- outside1234 11y ago
  We are working on Facebook on the best long term strategy for maintaining UWP support. Our fork is only to add the ReactWindows directory and to otherwise track master in the process.
Aleman360 11y ago
Why does this generate C# instead of C++?
- the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
  Why not? Seems like a reasonable thing to do. Is there a specific reason it should be C++?
  - Aleman360 11y ago
    Runtime memory usage and startup perf is better for C++ XAML apps.
    - ctangent 11y ago
      UWP C# apps are AOT compiled, the startup hit isn't that bad nowadays.
- outside1234 11y ago

BHSPitMonkey 11y ago

This was somewhat expected after Microsoft released a first-party React Native plugin for their Visual Studio Code IDE a couple weeks ago: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-react-native https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-react-native

radicalman 11y ago

Wish we had riotjs native cuz reactjs sucks like Java swing

mrspeaker 11y ago

Wow - great news! We were launching our relatively complex app iOS only, but had some downtime and decided to see how the Android implementation fared: it worked really well (much better than I expected) and hasn't taken much effort to have something that feels really nice. Now I'm excited to try this project out!

RussianCow 11y ago

For those interested, the GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native

Ezhik 11y ago
How many organizations does Microsoft have on GitHub, I wonder? Seems like every project they publish is under a different account.
- WorldMaker 11y ago
  They built a meta-tracking site at http://microsoft.github.io/ http://microsoft.github.io/ and it has a list of Other GitHub orgs at the bottom of that page as well as the repository README. Currently missing ReactWindows, but it's just a PR away to fix: https://github.com/Microsoft/microsoft.github.io https://github.com/Microsoft/microsoft.github.io

jgnmello 11y ago

Only works with Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise?

whatever_dude 11y ago
It works on anything since it's just for platform support and unrelated to tooling. But on the tooling side, they also have a companion extension for (the free, multi-platform) Visual Studio Code. From the article: > In addition to this work on the core framework support, Microsoft is also providing open source tools and services to help developers create React Native apps. The React Native extension for Visual Studio Code (https://code.visualstudio.com/ https://code.visualstudio.com/) brings an intuitive, productive environment to author and debug React Native apps.
- jgnmello 11y ago
  So, I can build the repo with community? Because I found this statement "Assuming you have Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise installed" at https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/tree/ReactWindows/ReactWindows https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/tree/ReactWindo...
  - jongalloway2 11y ago
    Fixed: https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/issues/345 https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/issues/345
- shankun 11y ago
  In addition to the free extension for VS Code (which is free and open source, and available on Mac, Linux, and Windows), we have a free and open source service called CodePush (https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/ https://microsoft.github.io/code-push/) for instantly pushing React Native apps to devices.

daxfohl 11y ago

Wait, so will the "jsx" files be HTML or XAML? If written in JS, where does C# come in?

Aleman360 11y ago
https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/blob/ReactWindows/ReactWindows/Playground/index.windows.js https://github.com/ReactWindows/react-native/blob/ReactWindo... Looks like it evaluates the JS and creates XAML elements programmatically using C#.

plexchat 11y ago

I hate to be a naysayer because this is great work and all, but frankly, managing all these platforms is going to be a nightmare. In a traditional engine, the code for each platform is embedded at the lowest level of abstraction. That is the way it works for iOS and android at the moment, but adding new platform support via extensions will make the code harder to manage and reason about. I don't want a separate extension for OSX, Windows, and Linux. I want all the code about, say, filesystem handling to be in a single place (in neatly separated platform specific files). This applies to networking code, rendering, input, etc. I know at the bottom of the article there is hope of integrating it with the original project, but given that we are starting literally on the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm worried we will never reach this hypothetical nirvana. The original react native team needs to prioritize getting other platforms in the original codebase, and I may be mistaken, but I have not yet observed this, and so have some cause to worry.

hbcondo714 11y ago

Cordova, Xamarin and React Native...oh my! Which one are you all going to choose?

RussianCow 11y ago
Well, Corvoda and Xamarin are only for mobile apps. If React Native begins officially supporting desktop platforms, it'll be the only (popular) framework of its kind.
- cornedor 11y ago
  Haxe + for example OpenFL has even more targets, but not as popular.
- bossmojoman 11y ago
  Xamarin does OSX apps as well, Not sure about Linux
  - pritambaral 11y ago
    Xamarin is Monodevelop (plus some mobile and Mac stuff). Apparently monodevelop can be used to build apps for Linux using GTK#
- WorldMaker 11y ago
  Cordova and Xamarin both give you desktop reach on Windows through the UWP. You may be using the UWP to target mobile first and may not think to test for desktop, but both give you that option to expand into desktop. You can somewhat easily rehost a Cordova app in Electron for desktop reach on Mac and Linux (and even Windows if you prefer Electron to the UWP for some reason). There already are Xamarin Framework bindings for the Mac and you shouldn't have too hard of a time to use existing Gtk# resources to target Linux. Now that Xamarin Forms is true open source maybe someone will have more incentive to build a good XAML binding and Xamarin Forms implementation for Gtk# (or some other Linux UI toolkit for that matter). tl;dr: Lots of options! Yay!

bryanrasmussen 11y ago

I have to expect that a framework like this will not work exactly as well as 'True Native' (to coin a phrase), and and as there are now a number of platforms it needs to work across that all functionality exposed by React Native will not work equally well across all platforms. Is there a resource that compares React Native's functionalities across the platforms ( performance characteristics, behaviors, appearance, and so forth?)