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It’s incredible the lengths intelligent, experienced developers will go to, to avoid learning iOS or Android development. It’s a small bump to overcome to unsha

It’s incredible the lengths intelligent, experienced developers will go to, to avoid learning iOS or Android development. It’s a small bump to overcome to unshackle your project from an ever changing comfort blanket between yourselves and the platforms, that inevitably lags behind and is ultimately a comfort blanket that’s future is always in the hands of a third party. If your developing iOS and android apps in JS, then you’re smart enough to get stuck into Xcode/Swift and Android/Java, and you’ll probably never look back. Sounds like most RN devs find themselves in the trenches often enought as it is.

chrisco255 8y ago
Software development is already crazy expensive. Do you know how much it costs to build and maintain web, iOS, and Android apps? It's ridiculous. It's not a matter of not wanting to learn each platform. As Udemy pointed out, they ended up with 4 devs on each platform. They also have who knows how many devs on web and platform / backend services. Udemy is a successful product with market fit I'm sure they're doing fine either way, but for many startups this kind of efficiency can mean life or death. Not many can afford to burn through $100-$200K per dev just to reinvent the wheel wiring a bunch of REST calls up.
- mncolinlee 8y ago
  That's precisely the point. Airbnb decided they were now maintaining web, iOS, Android, AND THEN React Native instead of only web and React Native. Their costs went up, not down. I've found far too often over the years that companies decide to use a hybrid framework to save time and money and take just as long to write the app with equally as much cost. Then no one wants to maintain the finished product. It requires too many unlikely skill sets and trickier debugging. React Native isn't automatically cheaper because it's a hybrid. Hybrids work great for trivial apps that look a lot like the examples. A hybrid framework also has to address every new niche the native solution fills or else integrations themselves add up to a massive cost.
  - dave_sid 8y ago
    Yes I agree. Hybrid platforms always foster great productivity at the start. In the early days it’s like “wow, we just produced two apps in no time at all with one codebase”. But eventually the curve plateaus, and its more like “for F* sake, I just want to access the camera api one the phone!” I feel that you eventually spend more time in the later stages footering with the corner cases, than you saved in the early stages by getting it up and running quickly. Also, when React is dead, you’ll find it much easier and cheaper to find native developers, and more living documentation/support for native apis.
- dave_sid 8y ago
  Half an hour wiring up some well understood rest calls vs tearing your hair out close to a deadline when React won’t call a new feature? Always keep it simple I say.
hesarenu 8y ago
The issue is multiple codebase which can diverge as well. But yes using swift/kotlin would be the way to go. RN developer here learning native code now.
yomansat 8y ago
The trouble here isn't with learning a platform, but with having to develop and maintain two. Web tools often allow hot reloads so a smaller feedback loop.
- dave_sid 8y ago
  Maintaining two code bases is not a big deal. Check them both out side by side. There they are right in front of you. Is sold as a bigger problem than it really is.

chrisco255 8y ago

Software development is already crazy expensive. Do you know how much it costs to build and maintain web, iOS, and Android apps? It's ridiculous. It's not a matter of not wanting to learn each platform. As Udemy pointed out, they ended up with 4 devs on each platform. They also have who knows how many devs on web and platform / backend services. Udemy is a successful product with market fit I'm sure they're doing fine either way, but for many startups this kind of efficiency can mean life or death. Not many can afford to burn through $100-$200K per dev just to reinvent the wheel wiring a bunch of REST calls up.

mncolinlee 8y ago
That's precisely the point. Airbnb decided they were now maintaining web, iOS, Android, AND THEN React Native instead of only web and React Native. Their costs went up, not down. I've found far too often over the years that companies decide to use a hybrid framework to save time and money and take just as long to write the app with equally as much cost. Then no one wants to maintain the finished product. It requires too many unlikely skill sets and trickier debugging. React Native isn't automatically cheaper because it's a hybrid. Hybrids work great for trivial apps that look a lot like the examples. A hybrid framework also has to address every new niche the native solution fills or else integrations themselves add up to a massive cost.
- dave_sid 8y ago
  Yes I agree. Hybrid platforms always foster great productivity at the start. In the early days it’s like “wow, we just produced two apps in no time at all with one codebase”. But eventually the curve plateaus, and its more like “for F* sake, I just want to access the camera api one the phone!” I feel that you eventually spend more time in the later stages footering with the corner cases, than you saved in the early stages by getting it up and running quickly. Also, when React is dead, you’ll find it much easier and cheaper to find native developers, and more living documentation/support for native apis.
dave_sid 8y ago
Half an hour wiring up some well understood rest calls vs tearing your hair out close to a deadline when React won’t call a new feature? Always keep it simple I say.

hesarenu 8y ago

The issue is multiple codebase which can diverge as well. But yes using swift/kotlin would be the way to go. RN developer here learning native code now.

yomansat 8y ago

The trouble here isn't with learning a platform, but with having to develop and maintain two. Web tools often allow hot reloads so a smaller feedback loop.

dave_sid 8y ago
Maintaining two code bases is not a big deal. Check them both out side by side. There they are right in front of you. Is sold as a bigger problem than it really is.