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All these discussions miss the point to me: React can be run natively on Android and iOS. Can Angular? Vue? Elm? It seems like there can't be any real compe

All these discussions miss the point to me: React can be run natively on Android and iOS. Can Angular? Vue? Elm? It seems like there can't be any real competition when starting a large class of new projects until the answer is "yes." So I'm asking: what are the best real alternatives that work natively on mobile?

_some_guy 10y ago
Check out NativeScript, you can use Angular 2 to build native mobile apps.
- nadermx 10y ago
  I'm still torn, most everyone I have talked too that did a non native app said they would never do it again and would rather do native.
  - dbbk 10y ago
    NativeScript does make native apps. It's in the name.
    - LeoNatan25 10y ago
      Agree that NativeScript is the most "native" of the JS cross platform tools, since it can use actual native concepts, such as controllers, views, gesture recognizers, etc, whereas things like RN throw the "native" word everywhere, but actually implement everything internally in JS. A small example - a tap gesture in RN is actually implemented using `touchesBegan:` API, which routes input to JS over RN bridge, JS performs the tap logic. Doesn't sound terrible, but consider that the RN bridge is async, so the user experiences a floaty behavior, and if that single JS thread is busy with some business logic, you are dead. Same for animations and interactions. Navigation is a joke, with current and other implementations being JS replicas of the real thing, and the native NavigatorIOS, the one to use actual native iOS concepts, being deprecated. NativeScript also has a novel idea how to implement multithreading in JS, which is commendable.
- duluca 10y ago
  Or Ionic 2.
bobbytherobot 10y ago
I think the React Native is pretty cool. React Native doesn't take your web JavaScript and turn it into a mobile app. It is using the React library with the native UI view objects. Those are two different problems: what is the best framework for our web front-end vs what is the best framework for our iOS front-end. If you want to normalize on React for both, what is the problem that you are solving by doing that?
- LeoNatan25 10y ago
  Almost none of the views used internally in React Native are "native". On iOS, only UIView, UIScrollView and UITextView are used, and every component is reimplemented from the JS side with some help with reinvent-the-wheel type native support. Button with highlight? JS animation on a text container view with a JS tap recognizer. Yes, even gesutre recognizers are implemented in JS, rather than using the native gesture recognizers. Animations - the same. Recently, due to great pressure from the community, some animations were added in native - and are still reinvent-the-wheel type animations, rather than using the OS-provided animation facilities. Controls already do not look or feel native, and once the OS changes its small details some more, it will require FB or the open source community to again reimplement the wheel, and then either have to support both old and new looks and feels, or only support new ones and look out of place for people that have the old OS yet (think of the iOS 6 -> iOS 7 transition, and how RN would look like on iOS 6 once they reinvented the wheel and implemented the iOS 7 look and feel).
badreaction 10y ago
React Native is just a renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer
badreaction 10y ago
React Native is just a renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer
kirushik 10y ago
Well, there's https://weex-project.io/ https://weex-project.io/ which claims to be easy the "React for Vue" you're asking about. The only caveat is that you'd better be reading Chinese version of documentation with Google Translate, English one is basically one huge "to be done" placeholder.
- dhbradshaw 10y ago
  Yeah, I had actually looked through this documentation. It's state of readiness convinced me that it wasn't yet a viable solution.
LeoNatan25 10y ago
How is React running natively in React Native? The most basic things are reimplemented (quite badly) in JS, such as controller navigation (for the lack of a better term), buttons, gestures, animations. Most of them run on the JS stack, which is run on a JavaScriptCore VM instance, the same VM running when using a web view. How is any of that native? For me, "native" means using only OS-native components for navigation and views, gesture handling, animations, interactions, etc., and also, do not run in additional VMs. If you are willing to let go of the last requirement, NativeScript and Xamarin are a lot more sensible "native" choices than React Native.
- Illniyar 10y ago
  The choice of words was poor, but the point of the original poster, I think, were clear. React-native provides react with primitives that are native (such as View, Button etc...). Navigation is also native (as in the transitions are native). Until angular or vue can run withou the dom (which is the #1 reason for performance issues in wwb apps), they cannot compete with react.
  - LeoNatan25 10y ago
    Transitions are not native. They are simulated to appear as if native from JS.

_some_guy 10y ago

Check out NativeScript, you can use Angular 2 to build native mobile apps.

nadermx 10y ago
I'm still torn, most everyone I have talked too that did a non native app said they would never do it again and would rather do native.
- dbbk 10y ago
  NativeScript does make native apps. It's in the name.
  - LeoNatan25 10y ago
    Agree that NativeScript is the most "native" of the JS cross platform tools, since it can use actual native concepts, such as controllers, views, gesture recognizers, etc, whereas things like RN throw the "native" word everywhere, but actually implement everything internally in JS. A small example - a tap gesture in RN is actually implemented using `touchesBegan:` API, which routes input to JS over RN bridge, JS performs the tap logic. Doesn't sound terrible, but consider that the RN bridge is async, so the user experiences a floaty behavior, and if that single JS thread is busy with some business logic, you are dead. Same for animations and interactions. Navigation is a joke, with current and other implementations being JS replicas of the real thing, and the native NavigatorIOS, the one to use actual native iOS concepts, being deprecated. NativeScript also has a novel idea how to implement multithreading in JS, which is commendable.
duluca 10y ago
Or Ionic 2.

bobbytherobot 10y ago

I think the React Native is pretty cool. React Native doesn't take your web JavaScript and turn it into a mobile app. It is using the React library with the native UI view objects. Those are two different problems: what is the best framework for our web front-end vs what is the best framework for our iOS front-end. If you want to normalize on React for both, what is the problem that you are solving by doing that?

LeoNatan25 10y ago
Almost none of the views used internally in React Native are "native". On iOS, only UIView, UIScrollView and UITextView are used, and every component is reimplemented from the JS side with some help with reinvent-the-wheel type native support. Button with highlight? JS animation on a text container view with a JS tap recognizer. Yes, even gesutre recognizers are implemented in JS, rather than using the native gesture recognizers. Animations - the same. Recently, due to great pressure from the community, some animations were added in native - and are still reinvent-the-wheel type animations, rather than using the OS-provided animation facilities. Controls already do not look or feel native, and once the OS changes its small details some more, it will require FB or the open source community to again reimplement the wheel, and then either have to support both old and new looks and feels, or only support new ones and look out of place for people that have the old OS yet (think of the iOS 6 -> iOS 7 transition, and how RN would look like on iOS 6 once they reinvented the wheel and implemented the iOS 7 look and feel).

badreaction 10y ago

React Native is just a renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer

badreaction 10y ago

React Native is just a renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer https://github.com/angular/react-native-renderer

kirushik 10y ago

Well, there's https://weex-project.io/ https://weex-project.io/ which claims to be easy the "React for Vue" you're asking about. The only caveat is that you'd better be reading Chinese version of documentation with Google Translate, English one is basically one huge "to be done" placeholder.

dhbradshaw 10y ago
Yeah, I had actually looked through this documentation. It's state of readiness convinced me that it wasn't yet a viable solution.

LeoNatan25 10y ago

How is React running natively in React Native? The most basic things are reimplemented (quite badly) in JS, such as controller navigation (for the lack of a better term), buttons, gestures, animations. Most of them run on the JS stack, which is run on a JavaScriptCore VM instance, the same VM running when using a web view. How is any of that native? For me, "native" means using only OS-native components for navigation and views, gesture handling, animations, interactions, etc., and also, do not run in additional VMs. If you are willing to let go of the last requirement, NativeScript and Xamarin are a lot more sensible "native" choices than React Native.

Illniyar 10y ago
The choice of words was poor, but the point of the original poster, I think, were clear. React-native provides react with primitives that are native (such as View, Button etc...). Navigation is also native (as in the transitions are native). Until angular or vue can run withou the dom (which is the #1 reason for performance issues in wwb apps), they cannot compete with react.
- LeoNatan25 10y ago
  Transitions are not native. They are simulated to appear as if native from JS.