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Does that justify alpha dependencies?

by bigato 9y ago

scrollaway 9y ago
React Native and React are developed by people who know each others' codebases pretty damn well. I trust them to know what's better for the end users; wouldn't you? I admire Dan's patience and restrain. Personally, I see a paragraph like that original post scriptum, I dismiss the entire thing as a troll. The guy doesn't even talk about what problems he encountered with react native, he just says "Look! Lots of open issues, and big bad alpha software! What do you THINK happened, hmm?" What I think happened is that he encountered maybe a couple of bugs and got pissed off at the whole thing, then tried justifying it with whatever strawman was readily available. Happens to me too. I get just as annoyed. I don't write articles shitting on the devs about it though, I generally file PRs to fix the bugs.
- bigato 9y ago
  Which programmer should I trust the most? The one who marked his code alpha or the one who used it in production anyway?
  - scrollaway 9y ago
    "Using it in production" is not the same thing as making it a dependency on master. Also, you realize how silly that question is when the two programmers are actually one and the same, right? Like I said, there's nobody who knows the React codebase better than the React Native people. Edit: You answered your own question better than I could have in your reply.
  - bigato 9y ago
    "This is intentional because the React Native releases follow the copy of RN in Facebook's repo, which also sometimes uses alpha versions of React. It is correct to depend on React 16 alpha 6." source: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/13291 https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/13291 "At times, React Native will depend on an alpha version of React – this happens in part due to the fact that RN has a more frequent release cycle than React itself, and that's the correct version to use when working with React Native. We use alpha versions of React in production at Facebook so they should be pretty stable." source: https://discuss.reactjs.org/t/why-does-reactnative-0-43-install-react-16-0-0-alpha-6/6910 https://discuss.reactjs.org/t/why-does-reactnative-0-43-inst... When did it become ok to use alpha versions in production? Or are they stable then? When did it become ok to call alpha something that is considered stable?
    - julianmarq 9y ago
      I didn't know about this. I can't wrap my mind into why anyone would be doing this. If this thread is any indication, members of the react (et al) team frequent this place so I hope one of them can clear this doozy up.
      - danabramov 9y ago
        I added this paragraph: >The version of the `react` package is generally not relevant for React Native users because it contains very little code (`Component` and `createElement`). The reconciler code is synced to React Native separately. So this an artifact of the different release cycles of RN and React, and doesn’t at all mean that RN apps are using an unstable version of React. This is the same exact version we are using at Facebook in production. I agree it’s confusing though, and we hope to align the release process between React and React Native more closely in the future.
        bigato 9y ago
        Thank you for the answer, Dan. Would you also be able to clarify why Facebook uses an alpha version of React in production?
        spicyj 9y ago
        We develop React and test it on Facebook before making open source releases. In most cases, we update the version that Facebook is using every few weeks. Since they aren't full releases at that point, we call them alphas. They let us get a better appreciation for the issues that the new code may have and how hard it is to update before we make everyone in the community upgrade.
        bigato 9y ago
        Isn't it semantically wrong to call it alpha if it is being used in production in one of the most used websites in the world? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle

Does that justify alpha dependencies?

by bigato 9y ago

Does that justify alpha dependencies?

React Native and React are developed by people who know each others' codebases pretty damn well. I trust them to know what's better for the end users; wouldn't you? I admire Dan's patience and restrain. Personally, I see a paragraph like that original post scriptum, I dismiss the entire thing as a troll. The guy doesn't even talk about what problems he encountered with react native, he just says "Look! Lots of open issues, and big bad alpha software! What do you THINK happened, hmm?" What I think happened is that he encountered maybe a couple of bugs and got pissed off at the whole thing, then tried justifying it with whatever strawman was readily available. Happens to me too. I get just as annoyed. I don't write articles shitting on the devs about it though, I generally file PRs to fix the bugs.

bigato 9y ago
Which programmer should I trust the most? The one who marked his code alpha or the one who used it in production anyway?
- scrollaway 9y ago
  "Using it in production" is not the same thing as making it a dependency on master. Also, you realize how silly that question is when the two programmers are actually one and the same, right? Like I said, there's nobody who knows the React codebase better than the React Native people. Edit: You answered your own question better than I could have in your reply.
- bigato 9y ago
  "This is intentional because the React Native releases follow the copy of RN in Facebook's repo, which also sometimes uses alpha versions of React. It is correct to depend on React 16 alpha 6." source: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/13291 https://github.com/facebook/react-native/issues/13291 "At times, React Native will depend on an alpha version of React – this happens in part due to the fact that RN has a more frequent release cycle than React itself, and that's the correct version to use when working with React Native. We use alpha versions of React in production at Facebook so they should be pretty stable." source: https://discuss.reactjs.org/t/why-does-reactnative-0-43-install-react-16-0-0-alpha-6/6910 https://discuss.reactjs.org/t/why-does-reactnative-0-43-inst... When did it become ok to use alpha versions in production? Or are they stable then? When did it become ok to call alpha something that is considered stable?
  - julianmarq 9y ago
    I didn't know about this. I can't wrap my mind into why anyone would be doing this. If this thread is any indication, members of the react (et al) team frequent this place so I hope one of them can clear this doozy up.
    - danabramov 9y ago
      I added this paragraph: >The version of the `react` package is generally not relevant for React Native users because it contains very little code (`Component` and `createElement`). The reconciler code is synced to React Native separately. So this an artifact of the different release cycles of RN and React, and doesn’t at all mean that RN apps are using an unstable version of React. This is the same exact version we are using at Facebook in production. I agree it’s confusing though, and we hope to align the release process between React and React Native more closely in the future.
      - bigato 9y ago
        Thank you for the answer, Dan. Would you also be able to clarify why Facebook uses an alpha version of React in production?
        spicyj 9y ago
        We develop React and test it on Facebook before making open source releases. In most cases, we update the version that Facebook is using every few weeks. Since they aren't full releases at that point, we call them alphas. They let us get a better appreciation for the issues that the new code may have and how hard it is to update before we make everyone in the community upgrade.
        bigato 9y ago
        Isn't it semantically wrong to call it alpha if it is being used in production in one of the most used websites in the world? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle