5 ms·

I'm getting a pretty good React Native app working without understanding any Objective C or Swift underlying stuff. Sometimes you just want a Honda.

LeoNatan25 8y ago
You are getting your users a pretty bad experience because you are lazy and only think about yourself. Users want Porsches, and they deserve them.
- levosmetalo 8y ago
  Users may want Porsches, but only a few are actually ready to pay for them.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    Just like many devs for their tools it seems.
- Demiurge 8y ago
  First of all, we've had people actually praise the app, second, no one deserves a Porsche. Except Bohr maybe :)
- jjeaff 8y ago
  That's just false in most cases. A react native app even halfway well designed is indistinguishable from native.
  - LeoNatan25 8y ago
    That's pure nonsense. I have not seen one RN app that looks anything like native, including our own.
    - Demiurge 8y ago
      Why would it be nonsense, when it outputs native elements, what could give it away?
      - LeoNatan25 8y ago
        Because that's incorrect. Yes, it outputs `UIView` objects. But that's far from being native. Just a few examples: a button/"touchable opacity" is not a `UIButton`, it's a custom view where RN fakes the touch animation in JavaScript(!). Gesture recognizers are faked in JavaScript. Animation doesn't use Core Animation but fakes it either in JavaScript or in custom C++ implementation in the Animated module. It's one big lie to call React Native "Native".
        Demiurge 8y ago
        Ok, thanks for a more informative reply, I didn't know about how some of the interop between JavaScript and native broke the native bits. That's good to know. Still though, this is a subset of native functionality. It sounds like there can still be two apps one native one 'react native' that are indistinguishable as long as they use that subset. No?
        LeoNatan25 8y ago
        No. I only gave you small examples. For example, system margins and guides are not taken into account by the RN layout system, causing apps to look non-native. Almost everything is implemented reinvent-the-wheel style in RN, which makes it uncanny valley (and thus, very easy to spot).
blub 8y ago
The real fun starts when you need to do advanced debugging, the toolkit doesn't cover your use case properly or you hit performance problems you can't solve in the non-native language :)
- Demiurge 8y ago
  I'm not sure why it would, I'm not doing anything outside of UI logic and interfacing with web services, so it's almost like all other React.js web development for me. Perhaps that's the sweet spot.
  - bamboo_7 8y ago
    Whoa! Whoa! Are you suggesting that the end experience with a programming framework might depend on the details of your specific project and should not be inferred from general blog posts? That's insane! /s

LeoNatan25 8y ago

You are getting your users a pretty bad experience because you are lazy and only think about yourself. Users want Porsches, and they deserve them.

levosmetalo 8y ago
Users may want Porsches, but only a few are actually ready to pay for them.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Just like many devs for their tools it seems.
Demiurge 8y ago
First of all, we've had people actually praise the app, second, no one deserves a Porsche. Except Bohr maybe :)
jjeaff 8y ago
That's just false in most cases. A react native app even halfway well designed is indistinguishable from native.
- LeoNatan25 8y ago
  That's pure nonsense. I have not seen one RN app that looks anything like native, including our own.
  - Demiurge 8y ago
    Why would it be nonsense, when it outputs native elements, what could give it away?
    - LeoNatan25 8y ago
      Because that's incorrect. Yes, it outputs `UIView` objects. But that's far from being native. Just a few examples: a button/"touchable opacity" is not a `UIButton`, it's a custom view where RN fakes the touch animation in JavaScript(!). Gesture recognizers are faked in JavaScript. Animation doesn't use Core Animation but fakes it either in JavaScript or in custom C++ implementation in the Animated module. It's one big lie to call React Native "Native".
      - Demiurge 8y ago
        Ok, thanks for a more informative reply, I didn't know about how some of the interop between JavaScript and native broke the native bits. That's good to know. Still though, this is a subset of native functionality. It sounds like there can still be two apps one native one 'react native' that are indistinguishable as long as they use that subset. No?
        LeoNatan25 8y ago
        No. I only gave you small examples. For example, system margins and guides are not taken into account by the RN layout system, causing apps to look non-native. Almost everything is implemented reinvent-the-wheel style in RN, which makes it uncanny valley (and thus, very easy to spot).

blub 8y ago

The real fun starts when you need to do advanced debugging, the toolkit doesn't cover your use case properly or you hit performance problems you can't solve in the non-native language :)

Demiurge 8y ago
I'm not sure why it would, I'm not doing anything outside of UI logic and interfacing with web services, so it's almost like all other React.js web development for me. Perhaps that's the sweet spot.
- bamboo_7 8y ago
  Whoa! Whoa! Are you suggesting that the end experience with a programming framework might depend on the details of your specific project and should not be inferred from general blog posts? That's insane! /s